Managing Electronic Meetings Using Artificial Intelligence and Meeting Rules Templates

ABSTRACT

Artificial intelligence is introduced into an electronic meeting context to perform various tasks before, during, and/or after electronic meetings. The tasks may include a wide variety of tasks, such as agenda creation, participant selection, real-time meeting management, meeting content supplementation, and post-meeting processing. The artificial intelligence may analyze a wide variety of data such as data pertaining to other electronic meetings, data pertaining to organizations and users, and other general information pertaining to any topic. Capability is also provided to create, manage, and enforce meeting rules templates that specify requirements and constraints for various aspects of electronic meetings.

RELATED APPLICATION DATA

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/992,273 (Attorney Docket No. 49986-0859) entitled “Electronic MeetingIntelligence”, filed Jan. 11, 2016, and Ser. No. 14/992,278 (AttorneyDocket No. 49986-0860) entitled “Electronic Meeting Intelligence”, filedJan. 11, 2016, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ (AttorneyDocket No. 49986-0889) entitled “Creating Agendas for ElectronicMeetings Using Artificial Intelligence”, filed ______, and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. 49986-0890) entitled“Selecting Meeting Participants for Electronic Meetings Using ArtificialIntelligence”, filed ______, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______(Attorney Docket No. 49986-0891) entitled “Real-Time (Intra-Meeting)Processing Using Artificial Intelligence”, filed ______, and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. 49986-0892) entitled“Post-Meeting Processing Using Artificial Intelligence”, filed ______,the contents all of which are incorporated by reference in theirentirety for all purposes as if fully set forth herein.

FIELD

Embodiments relate to electronic meetings conducted over computingnetworks.

BACKGROUND

The approaches described in this section are approaches that could bepursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previouslyconceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it shouldnot be assumed that any of the approaches described in this sectionqualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in thissection.

A meeting is typically an effective vehicle for coordinating thesuccessful accomplishment of a common goal shared by multiple people.However, a meeting can also devolve into a counterproductive use of timein the absence of proper organization of the meeting itself. Forexample, too much time may be devoted to a particular topic thatinvolves a small subset of meeting attendees, and this may result inwasted time for the remaining attendees. Such circumstances may beavoided through the use of a person serving as a meeting moderator, butpersonal biases may affect the neutrality of the person serving as themeeting moderator. Such circumstances may also be avoided throughadequate preparation for the meeting, but it may be impossible toforesee all the possible issues that may arise during the meeting.

Another way for a meeting to result in wasted time is by failing tofully reap the benefits provided by the meeting. For example,transcribing the meeting, scheduling an additional meeting, analyzingmeeting participation, and/or researching an issue that was contendedduring the meeting may be tedious follow-up actions that are neglectedafter the meeting. Even if the follow-up actions are performed, theprocess of performing them may be slow and cost-prohibitive.

Thus, it is desirable and beneficial to perform the administrativeduties related to a meeting using an approach without the aforementionedshortcomings.

SUMMARY

An apparatus includes one or more processors and one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions which, whenprocessed by the one or more processors cause an electronic meetingprocess executing on the apparatus to generate a graphical userinterface that allows a user to designate a particular meeting rulestemplate for an electronic meeting. The particular meeting rulestemplate specifies a plurality of rules to be applied to the electronicmeeting. The electronic meeting process executing on the apparatusenforces the plurality of rules specified by the particular meetingrules template with respect to the electronic meeting. The plurality ofrules may specify one or more requirements or constraints that are to beapplied to any aspect of an electronic meeting, before, during and/orafter the electronic meeting. The approach may also be implemented byone or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructionswhich, when processed by one or more processors, causes thefunctionality to be performed. The approach may also be implemented byone or more computer-implemented methods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings:

FIGS. 1A-C depict example computer architectures upon which embodimentsmay be implemented.

FIG. 2A depicts an example electronic meeting screen displayed by anelectronic meeting application at a node.

FIG. 2B depicts an example meeting rules templates screen displayed inresponse to a user selecting the “Meeting Rules Templates” option fromoptions in FIG. 2A.

FIG. 2C depicts a meeting rules templates screen that displays thecontents of the “Board of Directors” meeting rules template selected bya user from the meeting rules templates screen in FIG. 2B.

FIG. 2D depicts an electronic meeting screen displayed by an electronicmeeting application in response to a user selecting the “ElectronicMeetings” option from options in FIG. 2A.

FIG. 2E depicts an electronic meeting management screen displayed by anelectronic meeting application in response to a user selecting a controlfrom meeting controls.

FIG. 2F depicts a view electronic meeting screen displayed in responseto a user selecting the “View” option for the Code Review Meeting forthe Pluto Project displayed in existing meetings portion.

FIG. 2G depicts an electronic meeting management screen with a pop-upwindow that provides suggestions for missing meeting information, whichin the present example is the missing meeting owner.

FIG. 2H depicts an agenda creation screen generated in response to auser selecting Meeting Agenda control from electronic meeting managementscreen.

FIG. 2I depicts suggested agenda items for each category of suggestedagenda items depicted in FIG. 2H.

FIG. 2J depicts a participant selection screen generated in response toa user selecting Meeting Participants control from electronic meetingmanagement screen.

FIG. 2K depicts a natural language query via query window of anelectronic meeting screen that allows a user to enter a natural languagequery.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for generatingintervention data.

FIG. 4A is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement in which meetingintelligence apparatus includes speech or text recognition logic thatprocesses first meeting content data to determine one or morecorresponding agenda topics.

FIG. 4B is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for performingsentiment analysis with respect to an ongoing discussion.

FIG. 4C is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for retrievingrequested information using natural language queries.

FIG. 4D is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for supplementingmeeting content with participant identification data.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for generating areport.

FIG. 6A is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for generatingmeeting content metadata that includes participant identification data.

FIG. 6B is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for generatingmeeting content metadata that includes a sentiment detected in firstmeeting content data.

FIG. 6C is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for generatingmeeting content metadata that includes a label to identify a key, i.e.,important, meeting point.

FIG. 7A depicts an example meeting reports screen that provides accessto meeting results data for a plurality of electronic meetings.

FIG. 7B depicts an example meeting results screen for the Comet DesignReview Meeting.

FIG. 7C depicts an example participant analysis report.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram that depicts an approach for generatingintervention data.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram that depicts an approach for generating areport.

FIG. 10 depicts an example computer system upon which embodiments may beimplemented.

While each of the drawing figures depicts a particular embodiment forpurposes of depicting a clear example, other embodiments may omit, addto, reorder, and/or modify any of the elements shown in the drawingfigures. For purposes of depicting clear examples, one or more figuresmay be described with reference to one or more other figures, but usingthe particular arrangement depicted in the one or more other figures isnot required in other embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present disclosure. It will be apparent, however,that the present disclosure may be practiced without these specificdetails. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shownin block diagram form in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring thepresent disclosure. Modifiers such as “first” and “second” may be usedto differentiate elements, but the modifiers do not necessarily indicateany particular order.

I. Overview

II. Architecture

-   -   A. Meeting Intelligence Apparatus    -   B. Network Infrastructure    -   C. Participant Nodes

III. Meeting Rules Templates

IV. Electronic Meetings

-   -   A. Meeting Creation    -   B. Meeting Agenda Creation    -   C. Meeting Participant Selection        -   i. Suggested Meeting Participants        -   ii. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)        -   iii. Meeting Rules Templates        -   iv. Relevance Scores        -   v. Additional information

V. Real-Time Processing

-   -   A. Meeting Management        -   i. Agenda Management        -   ii. Points of Agreement, Action Items and New Meeting            Requests        -   iii. Sentiment Analysis        -   B. Information Retrieval        -   C. Meeting Content Supplementation        -   D. Meeting Content Metadata Generation    -   VI. Post-Meeting Processing        -   A. Meeting Content Analysis        -   B. Meeting Results        -   C. Participant Analysis        -   D. Action Item Management    -   VII. Process Overview        -   A. Generating Intervention Data        -   B. Generating Reports    -   VIII. Implementation Examples

I. Overview

Artificial intelligence is introduced into an electronic meeting contextto perform various tasks before, during, and/or after electronicmeetings. The tasks may include a wide variety of tasks, such as agendacreation, participant selection, real-time meeting management, meetingcontent supplementation, and post-meeting processing. The artificialintelligence may analyze a wide variety of data such as data pertainingto other electronic meetings, data pertaining to organizations andusers, and other general information pertaining to any topic. Capabilityis also provided to create, manage, and enforce meeting rules templatesthat specify requirements and constraints for various aspects ofelectronic meetings. The approaches described herein improve theefficiency of electronic meetings, enforce electronic meeting rules andpolicies, allow decisions to be made more quickly, and provide higherconfidence in the usefulness of electronic meetings.

II. Architecture

FIGS. 1A-C depict example computer architectures upon which embodimentsmay be implemented. FIGS. 1A-C include various examples of anarrangement 100 that supports electronic meetings. Arrangement 100includes a meeting intelligence apparatus 102 and one or more nodes104A-N, communicatively coupled via network infrastructure 106. Nodes104A-N are associated with a plurality of electronic meetingparticipants 108A-N, also referred to herein as “participants.” Someelements depicted in FIG. 1A are not depicted in other figures forpurposes of explanation, but these elements may be included in theelements of the other figures.

Electronic meetings supported by arrangement 100 may be any type ofelectronic meetings conducted in any form using any computing platform.Examples of electronic meetings include, without limitation,audioconferencing sessions, videoconferencing sessions, desktop sharingsessions, any combination of the foregoing, and/or any other electronicmeetings involving the sharing of data between network infrastructure106 and at least one node 104A. Participants 108A-N may be located inphysically-disparate locations or co-located in the same physicallocation. For example, FIGS. 1A-B depict arrangement 100 in whichparticipants 108A-N are located in different physical locations, yetparticipant in an electronic meeting via network infrastructure 106.FIG. 1C depicts arrangement 100 in which participants 108A-N are locatedin physical proximity to each other such that they may communicate witheach other without network infrastructure 106. However, networkinfrastructure 106 may enable participants 108A-N to interact withmeeting intelligence apparatus 102, which receives input data fromand/or sends output data to node 104A. Embodiments are also applicableto electronic meetings in which some participants 108A-N are inphysically-disparate locations and some are co-located at the samephysical location.

In an embodiment, arrangement 100 involves a network of computers. A“computer” may be one or more physical computers, virtual computers,and/or computing devices. A computer may be a client and/or a server.Any reference to “a computer” herein may mean one or more computers,unless expressly stated otherwise. Each of the logical and/or functionalunits depicted in any of the figures or described herein may beimplemented using any of the techniques further described herein inconnection with FIG. 10.

A. Meeting Intelligence Apparatus

In an embodiment, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 is implemented byone or more computing devices configured with artificial intelligence.The one or more computing devices may be special-purpose computingdevices dedicated to providing artificial intelligence to electronicmeetings, or generic computing devices executing one or more artificialintelligence services, such as artificial intelligence service 110 (FIG.1A), which provide artificial intelligence to electronic meetings. Thus,meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may be implemented using anycombination of computer hardware, computer software, and/or computerfirmware. Examples of artificial intelligence service 110 include,without limitation, IBM Watson and other question answering (QA)systems/services. Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may always beavailable (e.g., involve continuously running processes) or may beavailable on demand (e.g., be powered on when needed). Meetingintelligence apparatus 102 may be replicated over multiple computingdevices such that at any point in time, at least one computing devicecan provide meeting intelligence services.

Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may access meeting content data as ifit were a node associated with a participant in an electronic meeting.Thus, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may access any meeting contentdata that is transmitted from any of the one or more nodes 104A-Ninvolved in an electronic meeting. For example, meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 may monitor, collect, and/or analyze all datatransmissions during an electronic meeting. Meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 may analyze meeting content data using any of a number oftools, such as speech or text recognition, voice or face identification,sentiment analysis, object detection, gestural analysis, thermalimaging, etc. Based on analyzing the meeting content data and/or inresponse to requests, for example, from electronic meeting applications,meeting intelligence apparatus 102, either alone or in combination withone or more electronic meeting applications, performs any of a number ofautomated tasks, including performing one or more actions with respectto an electronic meeting, such as creating an electronic meeting,providing a translation, responding to an information request,determining suggested agenda items and suggested meeting participants,performing various types of real-time processing with respect to anelectronic meeting, such as managing the flow of an electronic meeting,processing agenda items, creating actions items, etc., and variouspost-meeting processing, such as generating a report, etc.

Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may be located at a number ofdifferent locations relative to network infrastructure 106. Referring toFIGS. 1A and 1C, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 is located outsidenetwork infrastructure 106. Referring to FIG. 1B, meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 is collocated with at least some of network infrastructure106. Artificial intelligence service 110 may include one or moreapplication program interfaces (APIs) that may be used by electronicmeeting applications to access functionality provided by artificialintelligence service 110.

In an embodiment, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 is communicativelycoupled to a meeting data repository (not depicted). The meeting datarepository may be part of meeting intelligence apparatus 102, or may belocated separate from meeting intelligence apparatus 102. The meetingdata repository may be a database, data structure, a configuration file,and/or any other system that stores data related to one or moreelectronic meetings. Like meeting intelligence apparatus 102, themeeting data repository may be located at different locations relativeto network infrastructure 106, for example, on one or more computingdevices internal or external to network infrastructure 106. The meetingdata repository stores data pertaining to any number of electronicmeetings, and may include data for prior electronic meetings, currentelectronic meetings, and future electronic meetings. Examples of datafor prior, current and future electronic meetings include, withoutlimitation, meeting agendas, meeting participant information, meetinginvitation information, meeting transcripts, minutes and notes, actionitems, etc., as well as results data that includes the results ofanalyzing any of the foregoing types of data. Meeting data may becollected and stored by meeting intelligence apparatus 102, nodes104A-N, or both. This allows meeting intelligence apparatus 102 toprovide the services of a librarian for meeting-related data, as well asthe other functionality described herein. Electronic meeting data mayalso be generated, stored and managed by other entities, such as otherprocesses.

In an embodiment, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 is communicativelycoupled to any of a number of external data sources (not shown), such aswebsites, other data available via the World Wide Web, databases managedby Salesforce, Oracle, SAP, Workday, or any entity other than the entitymanaging meeting intelligence apparatus 102. Meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 may be communicatively coupled to the external datasources via network infrastructure 106. The external data sources mayprovide meeting intelligence apparatus 102 with access to any of avariety of data, meeting-related or otherwise.

B. Network Infrastructure

Network infrastructure 106 may include any number and type of wired orwireless networks, such as local area networks (LANs), wide areanetworks (WANs), the Internet, etc. Network infrastructure 106 may alsoinclude one or more computing devices, such as one or more servercomputers, load-balancing computers, cloud-based computers, datacenters, storage devices, and/or any other special-purpose computingdevices. For example, network infrastructure 106 may include a UnifiedCommunication System (UCS) Service Platform by Ricoh Company Ltd.,and/or any other computer(s) that manage(s) electronic meetings.

C. Participant Nodes

Each node of the one or more nodes 104A-N is associated with one or moreparticipants 108A-N. Each participant is a person who participates in anelectronic meeting. Each node processes data transmission betweennetwork infrastructure 106 and at least one participant. Multiple nodes104A-N may be communicatively coupled with each other using any of anumber of different configurations. For example, multiple nodes may becommunicatively coupled with each other via a centralized server or viaa peer-to-peer network.

In an embodiment, a node includes a computing device that executes anelectronic meeting application 112. As used herein, the term“application” refers to any type of process. The node may include aspecial-purpose computing, such as Ricoh UCS P3500, or a general-purposecomputer that executes a special-purpose application, such as Ricoh UCSApp. The node may also include any of a number of input/outputmechanisms, such as a camera, a microphone, and an electronicwhiteboard. For example, the node may include a smartphone with GPScapability, a camera, a microphone, an accelerometer, a touchscreen,etc. Example implementations of a node include, without limitation, adesktop computer, a laptop computer, a workstation, a tablet computingdevice, a personal digital assistant, an interactive whiteboard (IWB)appliance, a mobile phone, or other mobile computing device. Theinput/output mechanisms may include a participant interface, such as agraphical user interface (GUI). Electronic meeting applications maycreate and manage data that supports electronic meetings, and the datamay be stored locally on nodes 104A-N, or remotely, depending upon aparticular implementation. Electronic meeting application 112 isimplemented by one or more processes that allow a corresponding node toparticipate in electronic meetings. Electronic meeting application 112is configured to interact with one or more other electronic meetingapplications on other computing devices and/or one or more electronicmeeting managers or servers to participate in electronic meetings.Electronic meeting application 112 is also configured to accessfunctionality provided by artificial intelligence service 110, via oneor more APIs provided by artificial intelligence service 110, toincorporate artificial intelligence into various aspects of electronicmeetings, as described in more detail hereinafter.

III. Meeting Rules Templates

According to one embodiment, functionality is provided to create andmanage meeting rules templates for electronic meetings. A meeting rulestemplate specifies a set of rules to be applied to any aspect of anelectronic meeting, i.e., before, during, and after an electronicmeeting. As used herein, the term “rule” refers to a requirement and/ora constraint. For example, a meeting rules template may define itemsthat are required to be included on an agenda, participants that arerequired in an electronic meeting, that a decision maker must bedesignated, one or more aspects of how an electronic meeting isconducted, e.g., via time limits, etc., procedural rules that govern anelectronic meeting, and items to be included in meeting results. Meetingrules templates may also specify data inputs for an electronic meeting,such as data streams, electronic documents, etc. Meeting rules templatefunctionality may be implemented, for example, by an electronic meetingapplication executing on a node 104A-N.

Meeting rules may be specified by an organization, e.g., via bylaws, orby entities external to organizations, such as governmental, judicial orlaw enforcement entities. One non-limiting example is organizationalrules or bylaws that require at least a specified number of participantsattend an electronic meeting to satisfy a quorum requirement for votingpurposes. The participants may include regular members, board members,voting members, etc. Another example is a time constraint (minimum ormaximum) for discussion of a particular agenda item. Yet another exampleis a requirement that documentation for an electronic meeting, such asmeeting minutes, include specified information, such as start and endtimes, the names of board members in attendance, decisions that weremade on action items, etc. Requirements and constraints may also specifythat a particular meeting procedure be used to conduct an electronicmeeting. One non-limiting example of a meeting procedure is RobertsRules of Order.

As described in more detail hereinafter, according to one embodiment, anelectronic meeting application allows a user to designate one or moremeeting rules templates for an electronic meeting. The electronicmeeting application, in conjunction with meeting intelligence apparatus102, enforces the rules specified by the designated meeting rulestemplates before, during, and after electronic meetings. This mayinclude, for example, ensuring that an agenda for an electronic meetingcontains required items, that required participants are included in anelectronic meeting, that required data inputs are provided, that theelectronic meeting is conducted in accordance with the requirements andconstraints, and that meeting results satisfy the requirements andconstraints specified by a meeting rules template.

FIG. 2A depicts an example electronic meeting screen 200 displayed by anelectronic meeting application at a node. Electronic meeting screen 200includes controls 202 for accessing meeting rules templates, electronicmeetings, meeting reports and action items. Electronic meeting screen200 may represent an initial meeting screen that is displayed after anelectronic meeting application is invoked on a node 104A-N.

FIG. 2B depicts an example meeting rules templates screen 204 displayedin response to a user selecting the “Meeting Rules Templates” optionfrom controls 202 in FIG. 2A. Meeting rules templates screen 204 allowsa user to view, edit and delete existing meeting rules templates, andcreate new meeting rules templates. Meeting rules templates screen 204depicts existing meeting rules templates displayed by department, withina business organization, and by topic. In the example depicted in FIG.2B, the departments include Legal, Engineering, Software QualityAssurance (SQA), Finance and Management, with one or more identifiedmeeting rules templates for each department. The particular departmentsincluded in FIG. 2B are provided for explanation purposes, and theorganization of meeting rules templates may vary depending upon aparticular implementation. For example, meeting rules templates may beorganized and displayed by any type of logical entity.

In the example depicted in FIG. 2B, a user may select an existingmeeting rules template and then edit or delete the selected meetingrules template by selecting an “Edit” control or a “Delete” control,respectively, from controls 206. According to one embodiment,permissions may be used to control which users have the authority toedit or delete a meeting rules template. For example, permissions datamay be maintained for meeting rules templates, where the permissionsdata specifies users who are authorized to edit and delete particularmeeting rules templates. This may be useful for meeting rules templates,such as the “Board of Directors” meeting rules template that may containsensitive information. A user may also create a new meeting rulestemplate by selecting a “New” control from controls 206. According toone embodiment, an electronic meeting application may include a wizardthat provides step-by-step assistance for users to create new meetingrules templates. This may include, for example, providing commonly-usedrules with controls that allow a user to select and de-select individualrules, as well as add custom rules. A “Back” control allows a user toreturn to the electronic meeting screen 200 of FIG. 2B. A search tool208 is also provided to allow a user to search for existing rulestemplates, for example, by keyword.

FIG. 2C depicts meeting rules templates screen 204 that displays the“Board of Directors” meeting rules template for the “Management”department selected by a user from the meeting rules templates screen204 in FIG. 2B. The Board of Directors meeting rules template specifiesrules that must be satisfied before, during, and after Board ofDirectors meetings. These rules specify that a Board of Directorsmeeting may have a maximum number of 10 meeting participants, a minimumnumber of four board members are required, a designated decision makeris required, certain agenda items are required, including a financialreview, short term strategic planning, and long term strategic planning,and a maximum amount of time of 15 minutes may be spent on each agendaitem. The rules also specify that Board of Directors meetings must beconducted in accordance with Roberts Rules of Order and meeting minutesmust be generated that include a start and end time of the meeting, alist of the Board members in attendance, and the results of votes on allmotions. The rules further specify that Board of Directors meetings mustinclude as data inputs, Q4 Financials and a Sales Projection Report. Theparticular data inputs may vary, depending upon the requirements of aparticular meeting.

The meeting rules depicted in FIG. 2C are provided for explanationpurposes, and meeting rules may vary, depending upon a particularimplementation. Controls 210 allow a user to add, edit or delete rules,save rules, or return to the meeting rules templates screen 204 of FIG.2B by selecting the “Back” option.

Meeting rules may be manually created by users, for example, by anadministrator or end user. According to one embodiment, meeting rulesmay be created with the assistance of meeting intelligence apparatus102. For example, when creating a new rule, via the “Add” control fromcontrols 210, the meeting rules templates screen 204 may provide anoption that allows a user to enter query terms for a particular type ofmeeting for which the user is interested in defining meeting rules.Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 processes the query terms andpresents results that include example meeting rules that may beappropriate for the particular type of meeting. The example meetingrules may be obtained, for example, based upon industry-specificpractices, or “best practices.” For example, the widely-accepted “bestpractices” for a particular type of engineering meeting may include asmall number of participants, e.g., less than five, and that input fromall meeting participants is required.

IV. Electronic Meetings

According to one embodiment, an electronic meeting application executingon a node 104A-N includes functionality that allows user to manageelectronic meetings. FIG. 2D depicts an electronic meeting screen 212displayed by an electronic meeting application in response to a userselecting the “Electronic Meetings” option from controls 202 in FIG. 2A.Electronic meeting screen 212 may be implemented, for example, by one ormore Web pages which, when processed on a computing device, causeelectronic meeting screen 212 to be displayed on the computing device.

Electronic meeting screen 212 includes a content window 213 thatincludes content 214 for a current electronic meeting, which mayrepresent a videoconferencing session, a desktop sharing session, amessaging session, an audio conferencing session, etc. Electronicmeeting screen 212 also includes a participant window 216 thatidentifies participants of the current electronic meeting, and an agendawindow 218 that displays an agenda for the current electronic meeting.Agenda window 218 includes a visual indicator 220 that identifies acurrent agenda item and a timer that indicates the time remaining forthe current agenda item. The management of agenda items using meetingintelligence apparatus 102 is discussed in more detail hereinafter.Electronic meeting screen 212 also includes meeting controls 222 thatprovide access to various functionality with respect to the currentelectronic meeting. As described in more detail hereinafter, thisincludes functionality pertaining to electronic meeting management,content, agendas, and participants. A message window 224 providesmessages generated with the assistance of meeting intelligenceapparatus, which is also described in more detail hereinafter.Electronic meeting screen 212 may include additional elements or fewerelements depending upon a particular implementation, and embodiments arenot limited to the example depicted in FIG. 2D.

FIG. 2E depicts an electronic meeting management screen 230 displayed byan electronic meeting application in response to a user selecting acontrol from meeting controls 222. Electronic meeting management screen230 includes an existing meeting portion 232 that displays informationand provides controls to view and join existing electronic meetings, anda new meeting portion 234 that includes controls that allow a user tocreate a new electronic meeting. According to one embodiment,permissions may be used to control the ability for users to view and/orjoin an electronic meeting. Permissions may be implemented in a widevariety of ways that may vary depending upon a particularimplementation. For example, in response to a user selecting the “Join”option for a particular electronic meeting via existing meeting portion232, a request to join the particular electronic meeting may begenerated and transmitted to the organizer of the electronic meeting. Inresponse to the meeting organizer approving the request, the user is maybe notified that their request has been granted and the user is allowedto join the particular electronic meeting. As an alternative, thisprocess may be automated based upon a user's permissions. For example,the permissions of the user requesting to join the particular meetingare compared to permissions specified for the particular electronicmeeting and the user is allowed to join the particular electronicmeeting if the user has the necessary permissions. The use ofpermissions in the foregoing examples is helpful for controlling accessto electronic meetings that may include sensitive or confidentialinformation. Electronic meeting management screen 230 includes a “Back”control to return to electronic meeting screen 200.

In the example depicted in FIG. 2E, existing meetings portion 232depicts existing electronic meetings for logical entities within abusiness organization that include a Pluto Project, a Legal Department,a Finance Department, and Management, with corresponding controls toview or join any of these electronic meetings. Embodiments are notlimited to these example logical entities, and any type of logicalentities may be used. A user may select the view control to viewinformation for a particular existing electronic meeting.

FIG. 2F depicts a view electronic meeting screen 240 displayed inresponse to a user selecting the “View” option for the Code ReviewMeeting for the Pluto Project displayed in existing meetings portion232. In the example depicted in FIG. 2F, view electronic meeting screen240 displays information 242 for the Code Review Meeting for the PlutoProject, including date, time duration, location and attendees. Theinformation 242 also includes electronic meeting rules 244 and an agenda246. As described in more detail hereinafter, electronic meeting rules244 and agenda 246 may be generated with the assistance of artificialintelligence provided by meeting intelligence apparatus 102. In theexample depicted in FIG. 2F, electronic meeting rules 244 are defined bya particular meeting rules template, namely, the Engineering—Code Reviewmeeting rules template depicted in FIG. 2B. This meeting rules templatespecifies a maximum number of 10 participants, that the meeting mustinclude a designated decision maker, a maximum of 20 minutes may bespent on each topic, and no meeting minutes are required.

Agenda 246 specifies topics to be addressed during the electronicmeeting and includes a revised dynamic linked library (DLL) for thesatellite link, driver code for the direct memory access (DMA) board, amilestone status review, software testing with hardware (h/w) in thevacuum chamber, the software testing schedule, and software integrationplanning. A user who has the necessary permissions, such as the owner orhost of the Code Review Meeting for the Pluto Project, may edit theinformation 242 for the electronic meeting. For example, a user mayselect the “Duration” attribute and change the value from 1 hour to 45minutes. Information 242 also includes a control that allows a user tojoin the electronic meeting. Selecting the “Join” option, either fromview electronic meeting screen 240, or the electronic meeting managementscreen 230 (FIG. 2E), causes a request for the user to join the meetingto be sent to the meeting owner for processing.

A. Meeting Creation

Electronic meetings may be created manually by users, or may be createdwith the assistance of artificial intelligence provided by meetingintelligence apparatus 102. Returning to FIG. 2E, new meeting portion234 includes controls that allow a user to specify, for a new electronicmeeting, a meeting name, a meeting owner, a meeting subject, and ameeting type. The controls also allow a user to select one or moremeeting rules templates, a date and time, and a location for the newelectronic meeting. The location may correspond to the physical locationof a computing device of the electronic meeting owner or host. A singlemeeting rules template is depicted in FIG. 2E for purposes ofexplanation, but electronic meetings may have any number ofcorresponding meeting rules templates. Embodiments are not limited tothe information depicted in FIG. 2E, and new meeting portion 234 mayallow a user to specify other information for new electronic meetings,depending upon a particular implementation.

According to one embodiment, missing information for new meetings may beprovided by meeting intelligence apparatus 102 based upon an analysis ofvarious types of data. In the example depicted in FIG. 2E, a meetingowner was not specified. Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 maydetermine, based upon an analysis of prior meetings for the Plutoproject, such as a first code review meeting, that Bob. H is a goodcandidate to be the meeting owner of the second code review meeting, andthe meeting owner field may be automatically populated with Bob H. Otherinformation may be considered in making the determination, such as othertypes of meetings for the same project, code review meetings for otherprojects, assigned responsibilities of project members, etc.

Missing information for a new meeting may be provided or indicated tothe electronic meeting application executing on node 104A-N andautomatically included in new meeting information. Missing informationmay be presented in a manner to visually indicate that the informationwas automatically provided, for example, via highlighting, coloring,special effects, etc., and a user may be given an opportunity to accept,reject, or edit the missing information that was automatically provided.Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may also provide multiple candidatesfor missing information.

In the prior example, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may determinethat both Bob H. and another person Susan G. are good candidates to bethe meeting owner of the second code review meeting. The two candidatesmay be presented as suggestions for designation as the meeting owner,and a user given an opportunity to select one, both, or none of thechoices, unless the electronic meeting application does not allowmultiple meeting owners, in which case only one of Bob H. and Susan G.may be selected as the meeting owner. Suggestions may be presented inranked order, based upon a confidence score, and the confidence scorefor each choice may be displayed to provide additional information tothe user making the selection.

FIG. 2G depicts electronic meeting management screen 230 with a pop-upwindow 239 that provides suggestions for missing meeting information,which in the present example is the missing meeting owner. In thisexample it is presumed that the creator of the new electronic meetingdid not specify a meeting owner. The suggestions for the meeting ownerare determined by the electronic meeting application in conjunction withmeeting intelligence apparatus 102. In this example, the suggestedmeeting owners Bob H. and Susan G. are displayed in pop-up window 239,and controls are provided to accept or reject one or both of thesuggested meeting owners, along with controls for saving the informationfor the new electronic meeting, or canceling and not saving theinformation. A confidence score generated by meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 is optionally displayed for each suggestion. Theconfidence score represents a likelihood that the correspondingsuggestion will be selected by the user.

Additional information is optionally provided with the suggestions toaid the user in making a selection of one, both or none of the suggestedmeeting owners. The additional information may be information thatmeeting intelligence apparatus 102 considered in making the suggestions,or may be other information that is deemed likely to be helpful to usersin considering the suggested missing information, i.e., the missingmeeting owner in the present example. As depicted in FIG. 2G, theadditional information for Bob H. indicates that Bob H. was the owner ofprior code review meetings for the Pluto project, making him a candidatefor the meeting owner. Susan G. is a member of the Pluto project teamand was the owner of code review meetings for other projects, whichcombined makes Susan G. a candidate for the meeting owner of the secondcode review meeting for the Pluto project. This example illustrates howcognitive computing may be useful in providing suggestions for missinginformation for a new electronic meeting. This approach may be appliedto any missing information, depending upon a particular implementation.

Electronic meetings may also be automatically created during electronicmeetings by an electronic meeting application executing on a node, inconjunction with meeting intelligence apparatus 102. According to oneembodiment, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 detects, during anelectronic meeting, one or more cues that indicate that a new meetingshould be created. For example, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 maydetect, in meeting content data, an explicit command, such as a naturallanguage request, from a meeting participant to create a new meeting.Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may be configured to recognizeparticular commands and formats, e.g., “SystemOne: create new meeting.”

Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may also be configured to create newmeetings based upon implicit commands. Implicit commands or requests arestatements made during an electronic meeting that indicate a desire fora new meeting, even though the statements may not include an explicitspecified command or request for a new meeting. For example, meetingintelligence apparatus 102 may detect, in meeting content data,statements made as part of a conversation to indicate that anothermeeting may be useful in discussing a particular topic. Examples of suchstatements include “It would be good to discuss this in a separatemeeting” and “Let's setup another meeting to discuss this further.”These statements can be characterized as representing an implied requestfor a new electronic meeting. Cognitive computing functionality providedby meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may be used to analyze statementsmade during an electronic meeting to determine whether an implicitcommand or request for a new electronic meeting has been made during anelectronic meeting. Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may then informthe electronic meeting application that a new electronic meeting shouldbe created, as described in more detail hereinafter.

Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may be further configured to create anew electronic meeting based upon sentiment analysis of a currentelectronic meeting that indicates that a new meeting may be appropriateor helpful in a particular situation. For example, sentiment analysis ofa current electronic meeting may indicate that significant disagreementand/or hostility exists between participants in a meeting. Sentimentanalysis may use various cues that occur in speech during an electronicmeeting, such as tone of voice, volume of voice, velocity of speech,lack of pauses in speech, profanity, sounds such as grunts, exhalationof air, etc. The use of sentiment analysis is described in more detailhereinafter.

In response to determining that a new meeting is appropriate, based uponan explicit command, an implicit command, or sentiment analysis, meetingintelligence apparatus 102 may directly instruct an electronic meetingapplication to request a new meeting, or include an instruction orrequest in meeting content data or meeting metadata that is provided tothe electronic meeting application. In response to receiving aninstruction or request, the electronic meeting application may provide avisual and/or audible notification to indicate a new meeting request.The electronic meeting application may display information for the newelectronic meeting determined from information in the current electronicmeeting. For example, the electronic meeting application, in conjunctionwith meeting intelligence apparatus 102, may determine information forthe new electronic meeting based upon information in the currentelectronic meeting. For example, a statement may be made during thecurrent electronic meeting, “We should have a separate meeting for thisnext Tuesday,” and a proposed date and time would be included with theinformation for the new electronic meeting. The electronic meetingapplication may, in conjunction with meeting intelligence apparatus 102,query a user for additional information about the new electronicmeeting, for example, information that is deemed to be missing for thenew electronic meeting.

B. Meeting Agenda Creation

Electronic meeting agendas may be created manually by users and may becreated with the assistance of artificial intelligence provided bymeeting intelligence apparatus 102. According to one embodiment, meetingintelligence apparatus 102 participates in the creation of electronicmeeting agendas by providing suggested items to be included on anelectronic meeting agenda. The electronic meeting application mayrequest that meeting intelligence apparatus 102 provide suggested agendaitems for an electronic meeting. The request for suggested agenda itemsmay include data that specifies a plurality of attributes of the newelectronic meeting. For example, a request for suggested agenda itemsmay include any of the data specified by a user in new meeting portion234 of electronic meeting management screen 230. In response to thisrequest, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 analyzes various types ofinformation and provides suggested agenda items to the electronicmeeting application, which displays the suggested items for a user, andallows a user to select suggested items to be included in an electronicmeeting agenda.

Returning to FIG. 2E, new meeting portion 234 includes a Meeting Agendacontrol 236 that allows a user to create a meeting agenda for a newelectronic meeting. FIG. 2H depicts an agenda creation screen 250generated in response to a user selecting Meeting Agenda control 236from electronic meeting management screen 230. For example, in responseto a user selecting Meeting Agenda control 236 from electronic meetingmanagement screen 230, the electronic meeting application may causeagenda creation screen 250 to be generated and displayed.

Agenda creation screen 250 includes agenda information 252 for the newelectronic meeting, which in this example is the second code reviewmeeting for the Pluto project. Agenda information 252 includesuser-specified agenda items 254 that may be manually specified by auser. User-specified agenda items 254 may be specified, for example, asa list of agenda items that a user wishes to be included on the meetingagenda for the new electronic meeting. In the example depicted in FIG.2H, user-specified agenda items 254 include three agenda items:Additional Software Requirements from Vendor, Graphical User InterfaceUpdate, and Software Integration Planning. These agenda items may bespecified by a user typing the agenda items into user-specified agendaitems 254, or by copying and pasting information from otherapplications. User-specified agenda items 254 may be added, edited, anddeleted, and the changes saved via selection of the Save control 258.

Agenda information 252 also includes suggested agenda items 256 that aregenerated with the assistance of meeting intelligence apparatus 102.Suggested agenda items 256 may be automatically generated and displayedin response to a user selecting Meeting Agenda control 236 when agendacreation screen 250 is displayed. Alternatively, agenda creation screen250 may include a control for requesting the generation and display ofsuggested agenda items 256. A user may switch between user-specifiedagenda items 254 and suggested agenda items 256 by selecting eachcorresponding area on agenda creation screen 250, for example, by usinga selection device such as a mouse.

Suggested agenda items 256 are topics for discussion that are determinedto be relevant and appropriate for a particular new electronic meeting.The topics may be topics that have been scheduled for discussion, oractually discussed, in other electronic meetings, or they may be newtopics. For example, suggested agenda items 259 may include topics thatappear in multiple electronic documents related to the subject matter ofa new electronic meeting. To generate suggested agenda items 256,meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may analyze agendas of other prior orcurrent electronic meetings, minutes or other written records of otherelectronic meetings, other documentation, or any other information. Thismay include information for the same entity associated with theelectronic meeting, other entities, or information for a particularindustry or context. Examples of information analyzed by meetingintelligence apparatus 102 includes, without limitation, meeting agendasor other documents for other electronic meetings of the same meetingtype for the same project, of the same meeting type for other projectswithin an entity, such as a business or other organization, of adifferent, but related meeting type, for the same project, or for otherprojects, etc. this may include, for example, search for electronicdocuments that mention the current project, which in the present exampleis the Pluto Project. Other examples include, without limitation,meeting agendas for other organizations within the same industry orcontext. Information beyond meeting agendas may also be evaluated.Examples of other information include, without limitation,specifications, memoranda, and other documents.

Suggested agenda items 256 may be organized and presented to a user inany manner that may vary depending upon a particular implementation. Fora large number of suggested agenda items 256, visually organizing thesuggested agenda items on a user interface may provide a more favorableuser experience than merely listing all available suggested agenda items256. FIG. 2H depicts categories of suggested agenda items 256:Uncompleted Agenda Items From Prior Meeting(s), Action Items From PriorMeeting(s), Agenda Items Based Upon Meeting Rules Template, and Other.Each of the categories may be selected to view the particular agendaitems within each category.

FIG. 2I depicts suggested agenda items for each category of suggestedagenda items depicted in FIG. 2H. Organizing suggested agenda items bycategory may be more useful to some users than listing suggesting agendaitems in random order, although embodiments are not limited toorganizing suggested agenda items 256 by category, and other approachesmay be used such as alphabetical order, etc.

Agenda items in the Uncompleted Agenda Items and Action Items From PriorMeeting(s) categories may be determined by meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 first identifying one or more prior electronic meetingsthat are related to the current electronic meeting, and then analyzingelectronic documents associated with the identified one or more priorelectronic meetings. Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may identify theone or more prior electronic meetings, which in this example is theFirst Code Review Meeting, based upon a reference to the First CodeReview Meeting in documentation associated with the current electronicmeeting, i.e., the Second Code Review Meeting, or any other attributesof the current meeting. For example, the agenda for the currentelectronic meeting may explicitly reference the prior electronicmeeting. As another example, the one or more prior electronic meetingsmay be referenced by a schedule or plan. For example, both the one ormore prior electronic meetings and the current electronic meeting may beincluded on a project schedule.

Once the one or more prior electronic meetings have been identified,electronic documents for the one or more prior electronic meetings, suchas the agenda and/or meeting minutes of the prior meeting, are analyzedto determine the agenda items from the one or more prior electronicmeetings that were not completed, as well as action items that werecreated during the one or more prior electronic meetings. For example,meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may examine meeting minutes from theFirst Code Review Meeting to identify agenda items from that were notcompleted, as well as action items created during that meeting. Thoseidentified agenda items are added to the Uncompleted Agenda Items FromPrior Meeting(s) and Action Items From Prior Meeting(s) categories. Inthe example depicted in FIG. 2I, the “Driver code for DMA board” and“Software Testing Schedule” agenda items were uncompleted from the FirstCode Review Meeting, and the “Verify requirements for Satlink—John E.”and “Investigate problems with DMA board—Susan R.” action items wereassigned during or after the First Code Review Meeting.

Agenda items in the Agenda Items Based Upon Meeting Rules Templatecategory may be determined by meeting intelligence apparatus 102analyzing one or more meeting rules templates specified for the newelectronic meeting. In the present example, meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 determines that the “Milestones Status Review” agenda itemis required by the Engineering—Code Review meeting rules template.Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 therefore uses the “Milestones StatusReview” agenda item as a suggested agenda item. According to oneembodiment, agenda items required by a meeting rules template are notprovided as suggested agenda items that may be selected or not selectedby a user. Instead, the agenda items that are required by a meetingrules template are automatically added to the agenda for the currentelectronic meeting. This ensures that required agenda items specified bya meeting rules template are included on the agenda, and also reducesthe number of suggested agenda items that must be reviewed by a user.

Agenda items in the Other category may be determined by meetingintelligence apparatus 102 analyzing a plurality of data items toidentify suggested agenda items that are relevant to the new electronicmeeting. The plurality of data items analyzed by meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 may include any type of data items that may vary dependingupon a particular implementation. Relevance may be determined using awide variety of algorithms and heuristics that may vary depending upon aparticular implementation. According to one embodiment, meetingintelligence apparatus 102 is configured to analyze a plurality of dataitems to identify typical agenda items for the meeting type of the newelectronic meeting. In the present example, this includes determiningtypical agenda items for code review meetings. This may includedetermining the typical agenda items for code review meetings within thesame organization, or searching beyond the current organization to otherorganizations. The search may be conducted within the same context,industry, etc., or may extend to other contexts, industries, etc.According to one embodiment, meeting intelligence apparatus 102identifies electronic documents related to one or more topics orsubjects of the new electronic meeting and then analyzes the identifiedelectronic documents to determine one or more suggested agenda items forthe Other category. In the present example, meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 determines that the “Software Testing Schedule” agendaitem is typical for code review meetings and is therefore included as asuggested agenda item. Other criteria besides meeting type may be usedto identify suggested agenda items. For example, the meeting subject maybe used as a criterion to identify suggested agenda items. In thepresent example, meeting intelligence apparatus may search the pluralityof data items to identify data items related to the Pluto Project, anddetermine suggested agenda items based upon the data items related tothe Pluto Project.

According to one embodiment, relevance scores may optionally bedetermined and displayed for suggested agenda items 256. Relevancescores may be separately determined for each of the suggested agendaitems 256 based upon various factors. As depicted in FIG. 2I, relevancescores for suggested agenda items in the Uncompleted Agenda Items FromPrior Meeting(s) and Action Items From Prior Meeting(s) categories arerelatively high, which is attributable to a high correlation between thesuggested agenda items and one or more attributes of the new electronicmeeting. For example, the high correlation may be between the suggestedagenda items and one or more subjects or meeting types of the electronicmeeting. This may result in a user being more likely to select thesuggested agenda items for the new electronic meeting. Similarly,relevance scores for suggested agenda items in the Agenda Items BasedUpon Meeting Rules Templates are also relatively high since these agendaitems are required by the one or more meeting rules templates specifiedfor the new electronic meeting and are therefore determined to be highlycorrelated to one or more attributes of the new electronic meeting. Incontrast, a relevance score of 92% is determined and displayed for thesuggested agenda item “Software Testing Schedule.” This relevance scoreis lower than the relevance scores for the Uncompleted Agenda Items FromPrior Meeting(s) and Action Items From Prior Meeting(s) categories sincethe “Software Test Schedule” was not an uncompleted agenda item or anaction item from a prior meeting, but is nevertheless determined to havea high relevance score based upon, for example, 1) the meeting type ofthe new electronic meeting being a code review meeting; and 2) ananalysis of agendas for other code review meetings showed that asoftware test schedule is a common agenda item for code review meeting.

Suggested agenda items may be displayed in a generalized form toidentify the topics for discussion, while allowing a user to edit andtailor the suggested agenda items for a particular electronic meeting.Controls, in the form of checkboxes, are provided to allow a user toselect and deselect individual agenda items. Selecting a particularagenda item causes the particular agenda item to be included in theagenda for the new electronic meeting. According to one embodiment,agenda creation screen 250 provides the capability for users to editsuggested agenda items 256, for example, by selecting a particularsuggested agenda item using a pointing device such as a mouse, and thenedit the text of the particular suggested agenda item. This may beuseful, for example, to specify changes or clarifications to an agendaitem, which is commonly done on the context of electronic meetings. Oncethe user has completed editing (if applicable) and selecting suggestedagenda items 256, a selection of the “Save” control from controls 258causes the agenda information 252 for the new electronic meeting to besaved. Selecting of the “Back” control from controls 258 causes controlto be returned to the electronic meeting management screen 230.

C. Meeting Participant Selection

Electronic meeting participants may be selected manually by users andaccording to one embodiment, the selection of meeting participants isassisted by artificial intelligence provided by meeting intelligenceapparatus 102. Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 participates in theselection of electronic meeting participants by providing suggestedmeeting participants for an electronic meeting. In addition, asdescribed in more detail hereinafter, constraints and requirements formeeting participants specified by a meeting rules template designatedfor an electronic meeting may be enforced by electronic meetingapplications.

The electronic meeting application may request that meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 provide suggested meeting participants for an electronicmeeting. The request for suggested meeting participants may include datathat specifies a plurality of attributes of the electronic meeting. Forexample, a request for suggested agenda items may include any of thedata specified by a user in new meeting portion 234 of electronicmeeting management screen 230. In response to this request, meetingintelligence apparatus 102 analyzes various types of information andprovides suggested meeting participants to the electronic meetingapplication, which displays the suggested meeting participants for auser, and allows a user to select suggested meeting participants to beincluded in an electronic meeting.

Returning to FIG. 2E, new meeting portion 234 includes a MeetingParticipants control 238 that allows a user to select participants for anew electronic meeting. FIG. 2J depicts a participant selection screen260 generated in response to a user selecting Meeting Participantscontrol 238 from electronic meeting management screen 230. Participantselection screen 260 includes participant information 262 for the newelectronic meeting, which in this example is the second code reviewmeeting for the Pluto project. Participant information 262 includesuser-specified meeting participants 264 that may be manually specifiedby a user, for example, from a list of contacts or one or more addressbooks. An Add Contacts control 266 allows a user to access varioussources of contacts, including organization-based contacts, personalcontacts, social media contacts, etc., to provide additional contacts.

Participant information 262 also includes suggested meeting participants268 that are determined, at least in part, with the assistance ofmeeting intelligence apparatus 102. As depicted in FIG. 2J, severalsuggested meeting participants 268 are displayed and controls, in theform of checkboxes, are provided to allow a user to individually selectsuggested meeting participants 268 to be included in the electronicmeeting. Controls 270 allow a user to save the selections of meetingparticipants via a “Save” control from controls 270, or return toelectronic meeting management screen 230 via a “Back” control fromcontrols 270. Saving selections of meeting participants via a “Save”control from controls 270 may invoke other functionality, for example,an electronic meeting application to generate and transmit meetinginvitations to the meeting participants. According to one embodiment,controls are provided to designate a meeting participant as a decisionmaker for the electronic meeting. The designation of a meetingparticipant as a decision maker may be used during the electronicmeeting to manage the electronic meeting, as described in more detailhereinafter.

i. Suggested Meeting Participants

Suggested meeting participants 268 may be determined based upon a widevariety of information and criteria. According to one embodiment,information for other electronic meetings, such as agendas, transcripts,meeting minutes, etc., are analyzed to determine suggested meetingparticipants 268 for the current electronic meeting. For example,attendees of the prior First Code Review meeting for the Pluto Projectmay be included in suggested meeting participants 268 for the currentelectronic meeting, i.e., the Second Code Review Meeting for the PlutoProject, based upon their attendance at the prior electronic meeting. Asanother example, other members of the same team, project, department,group, technology or business area, etc., may be identified as suggestedmeeting participants 268. Suggested meeting participants 268 may also bedetermined based upon position, title, and/or responsibilities with anorganization. For example, a team leader or decision maker for the PlutoProject may be included as one of the suggested meeting participants268. Prior participation of participants in other electronic meetingsmay also be considered, for example, based upon records of otherelectronic meetings, such as transcripts, meeting minutes, or otherpost-meeting processing, as described in more detail hereinafter. Forexample, positive participation or contributions to other electronicmeetings may be a positive factor in including a participant as asuggested meeting participants 268. Participants outside of anorganization may also be included in suggested meeting participants 268,for example, as SMEs, as described in more detail hereinafter. Suggestedmeeting participants 268 may be displayed on participant selectionscreen 260 in different ways, depending upon a particularimplementation. For example, suggested meeting participants 268 may bearranged on participant selection screen 260 based upon relevance scores(described in more detail hereinafter), the level of participation inone or more prior electronic meetings, position or role within anorganization or with respect to the electronic meeting or a subject ofthe electronic meeting.

ii. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

Suggested meeting participants 268 may be determined based uponattributes of an electronic meeting. The attributes may be any type ofattributes for an electronic meeting and may include, for example, ameeting subject, meeting type, meeting location, agenda items, etc.According to one embodiment, participants determined to be highlycorrelated to the attributes for an electronic meeting are selected assuggested meeting participants. For example, suppose that the agenda forthe Second Code Review Meeting includes an agenda item pertaining toencryption. Suggested meeting participants 268 may include a suggestedmeeting participant who is a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in encryption,based upon the Second Code Review meeting including an agenda itempertaining to encryption. In the example depicted in FIG. 2J, “John E.”is identified as a SME based upon his expertise in the area ofencryption and is included in suggested meeting participants 268. Theidentification of an SME may be made based upon an analysis ofelectronic documents and other information that show that John E is aSME in encryption. Example information that may be considered includes,without limitation, resumes, academic credentials, academic papers,employee records, organization charts, presentation materials,information from other meetings, such as agendas and meeting minutes,project and product documentation, etc. SMEs may be internal or externalto an organization, depending upon a particular implementation. Forexample, some areas of technology, medicine, etc., may be very specificand have relatively few SMEs, and it is possible that some organizationsmay not have an SME available for a particular area. In thesesituations, including SMEs that are external to an organization providesadditional options for the meeting organizer.

In situations where multiple SMEs are identified for a particularsubject matter, all of the identified SMEs may be included as suggestedmeeting participants and differentiated by their respective relevancescores and additional information, which are described in more detailhereinafter. For example, a SME with prior experience on the projectthat is the subject of the electronic meeting may be given a higherrelevance score than another SME with equivalent background anexperience, but without specific prior experience on the project.Similarly, the participation level of each SME in prior electronicmeetings may be a factor in determining a relevance score. According toan embodiment, a search tool is provided to allow users to search formeeting participants. The search tool allows a user to specify one ormore attributes of desired meeting participants. Meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 performs a search and provides search results that satisfythe one or more attributes specified by the user. For example, a usermay enter, as attributes, one or more keywords associated with aparticular subject or topic, such as “encryption,” and participantsassociated with the subject “encryption” are presented to the user. Theuser may specify as search criteria other information, such as name,background, etc. The search tool may be implemented via one or morewindows, e.g., on participant selection screen 260.

iii. Meeting Rules Templates

Suggested meeting participants 268 may be determined based upon one ormore meeting rules templates specified for an electronic meeting. Aspreviously described herein, a meeting rules template specifies a set ofrequirements and/or constraints that may be applied to any aspect of anelectronic meeting, before, during, and after an electronic meeting. Therequirements and/or constraints may pertain to meeting participants. Forexample, a meeting rules template may specify that a particular person,a person with a specified level of authority, a decision maker, or aminimum and/or a maximum number of participants must attend anelectronic meeting.

According to one embodiment, suggested meeting participants 268 includemeeting participants that are determined to satisfy one or morerequirements and/or constraints specified by one or more meeting rulestemplates designated for an electronic meeting. For example, aparticular meeting rules template may require that a Chief ExecutiveOfficer (CEO) attend a Board of Directors meeting. In this examplesuggested meeting participants 268 would include the CEO of theorganization for the electronic meeting. As another example, aparticular meeting rules template may require that corporate legalcounsel be included in a litigation settlement meeting. In this example,one of the organization's corporate legal counsel may be included insuggested meeting participants 268. As yet another example, a particularmeeting rules template may require that a representative of a HumanResources (HR) department within an organization attend an employeedisciplinary meeting. These are just a few examples of particularparticipants that are required to attend electronic meetings to satisfyone or more requirements and/or constraints specified by one or moremeeting rules templates for an electronic meeting, and embodiments arenot limited to these examples. According to one embodiment, particularparticipants that are required to satisfy requirements or constraintsfor an electronic meeting may be automatically pre-selected. Forexample, suppose that a particular member of a team is required toparticipate in an electronic meeting. The electronic meeting applicationincludes the particular member of the team in suggested meetingparticipants 268 and pre-selects the particular member. De-selecting theparticular member would cause a message to be displayed notifying theuser that the particular member is required by the meeting rulestemplate designated for the electronic meeting.

Suggested meeting participants 268 may include multiple suggestedmeeting participants for a single requirement or constraint specified bya meeting rules template, or for multiple requirements and constraintsspecified by a meeting rules template. For example, a meeting rulestemplate for a Board of Directors meeting may require that both at leasta minimum number of Board members attend the electronic meeting tosatisfy a quorum requirement for voting purposes, and also that theChairman of the Board be one of the meeting attendees. Suggested meetingparticipants 268 that are required to satisfy one or more requirementsand/or constraints specified by one or more meeting rules templates foran electronic meeting may be conspicuously identified to users. Forexample, such suggested meeting participants 268 may be displayed withan indication that they are required, and/or displayed using differentcolors, special effects, etc.

According to one embodiment, an electronic meeting application isconfigured to enforce one or more constraints or requirements specifiedby a meeting rules templates designated for an electronic meeting.Enforcement of constraints or requirements may occur at different timesduring meeting participant selection, depending upon a particularimplementation. For example, constraints may be enforced after a userhas selected meeting participants and selected the Save control 270.This may include, for example, determining whether a total number ofmeeting participants selected by a user satisfies one or moreconstraints, such as a maximum number of meeting participants, specifiedby a meeting rules template designated for the electronic meeting. Inresponse to determining that the total number of meeting participantsselected by a user exceeds a maximum number of meeting participantsspecified by the meeting rules template, the user may be notified, viathe graphical user interface, that the requirement has not beensatisfied, and provide an opportunity for the user to remedy the error,for example, by de-selecting one or more meeting participants.

iv. Relevance Scores

According to one embodiment, a relevance score is calculated anddisplayed for each suggested meeting participant 268. The relevancescore indicates a relevance of the suggested meeting participant to theelectronic meeting, and the relevance score may be helpful to a user indeciding whether to select a particular suggested meeting participantfor inclusion in an electronic meeting. Relevance scores may beconsidered in the presentation of suggested meeting participants 268 toa user. For example, suggested meeting participants 268 may be orderedon participant selection screen 260 based upon relevance scores, e.g.,from highest (most relevant) to lowest (least relevant).

In the example depicted in FIG. 2J, the relevance scores are depicted inparentheses, i.e., “(98%)” on a scale of 0-100%, where 0% represents alowest level of relevance, or no relevance, between a particularsuggested participant and an electronic meeting, and 100% represents ahigh level of relevance, or complete relevance between a particularsuggested participant and an electronic meeting. The 0-100% scaledepicted in FIG. 2J is provided as an example implementation.Embodiments are not limited to this example and any scoring methodologymay be used.

Relevance scores may be calculated based upon a wide variety of factorsand information, such as one or more of, a meeting rules templatespecified for an electronic meeting, one or more attributes of theelectronic meeting, such as meeting type, meeting subject, meetinglocation, and agenda items, as well as any other information that mightindicate a relevance between a suggested participant and an electronicmeeting, such as participation and contributions made during priorelectronic meetings. For example, participation in a prior electronicmeeting of the same meeting type and for the same meeting subject wouldincrease the relevance score for a particular suggested meetingparticipant 268. A determination that the particular suggested meetingparticipant 268 participated in the prior electronic meeting wouldfurther increase the relevance score for the particular suggestedmeeting participant 268. This may be determined, for example, by ananalysis of records for other electronic meetings, such as meetingminutes, transcripts, etc. Information external to an organization maybe considered in determining relevance scores, for example, via theInternet. Examples of such information include, without limitation,educational background, professional credentials, work experience,published books, papers, studies and articles, other careerachievements, documents related to conferences, documents related tostandards organizations and public organizations, government documents,school curriculums, social media data, such as posts, etc. According toone embodiment, the availability of a suggested participant may bedetermined, e.g., via a participant's calendar, and indicated viaparticipant selection screen 260. For example, a visual indication maybe provided on participant selection screen 260 to indicate that aparticular participant is not available at the scheduled date and timefor an electronic meeting. This allows the meeting organizer to considerre-scheduling an electronic meeting for a meeting participant whoseparticipation is considered to be important.

v. Additional Information

According to one embodiment, additional information is determined anddisplayed with suggested meeting participants 268 to aid users indeciding whether to select a particular suggested meeting participantfor inclusion in an electronic meeting. The additional information mayinclude any information about the suggested participant, includinginformation used in calculating a relevance score. Examples ofadditional information include, without limitation, information about asuggested meeting participant, such as information about theireducational background, professional credentials, work experience,published books, papers, studies, articles, achievements, contributions,roles and positions within organizations, including participation inprojects and meetings, key quotes from other electronic meetings, etc.

For example, as depicted in FIG. 2J, the additional information forsuggested meeting participant “Taryn K.” specifies that this participantattended a prior electronic meeting that is relevant to the currentelectronic meeting, i.e., the First Code Review meeting for the PlutoProject. The additional information for suggested participant “Taryn K.”also specifies that this participant was a designated decision maker inthe First Code Review meeting for the Pluto Project. Both of these itemsof additional information may be helpful to a user in deciding whetherto select suggested meeting participant “Taryn K.” for inclusion in thecurrent electronic meeting, i.e., the Second Code Review Meeting for thePluto Project. These items of additional information may also havecontributed to suggested meeting participant “Taryn K.” having a veryrelevance score of 98%, i.e., based upon the facts that “Taryn K.” bothattended the First Code Review meeting for the Pluto Project and was thedesignated decision maker in that meeting.

In some situations, a large amount of additional information may beavailable for suggested meeting participants. According to oneembodiment, controls are provided on participant selection screen 260 toaccess further additional information. In FIG. 2J, an example control is“<more>” which, when selected, provides access to further additionalinformation for suggested meeting participant “John E.” The additionalinformation may be displayed, for example, in a pop-up box or overlaidwindow and may include, for example, any of the information describedabove, such as key quotes from prior meetings, etc.

IV. Real-Time Processing

According to one embodiment, artificial intelligence is used to managevarious aspects of electronic meetings. For example, meetingintelligence apparatus 102 may intervene during electronic meetings toprovide any of a variety of intervention data, such as visualindications, messages in message window 224, participant information,recommendation information, and/or any other data that meetingintelligence apparatus 102 transmits during an electronic meeting.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for generatingintervention data. Referring to FIG. 3, meeting intelligence apparatus102 receives audio/video data 300 from node 104A. Audio/video data 300may be one or more data packets, a data stream, and/or any other form ofdata that includes audio and/or video information related to anelectronic meeting. In the example depicted in FIG. 3, audio/video data300 includes first meeting content data 302 which, in turn, includes cue304. Cue 304 may take many forms that may vary depending upon aparticular implementation. Examples of cue 304 include, withoutlimitation, one or more keywords, tones, sentiments, facialrecognitions, etc., that can be discerned from audio/video data 300.Other examples of cue 304 include whiteboard sketches and/or gesturesthat may not be part of audio/video data 300.

Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 includes cue detection logic 306,which analyzes audio/video data 300 to determine whether audio/videodata 300 includes cue 304. Cue detection logic 306 may analyzeaudio/video data 300 on a continuous basis, or on a periodic basis,depending upon a particular implementation. Meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 also includes data generation logic 308, which generatesintervention data 310 if audio/video data 300 includes cue 304. Meetingintelligence apparatus 102 transmits intervention data 310 to node 104Aduring and/or after an electronic meeting. Intervention data 310includes second meeting content data 312 that may supplement or replacefirst meeting content data 302, as described in more detail hereinafter.Intervention data may also Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may canintervene in an electronic meeting in a wide variety of ways.Non-limiting examples include intervening to manage meeting flow, toprovide information retrieval services, and/or to supplement meetingcontent.

A. Meeting Management

According to one embodiment, artificial intelligence is used to assistwith managing various aspects of electronic meetings. This may include awide variety of functionality that may vary depending upon a particularimplementation. Example functionality includes, without limitation,agenda management, points of agreement, action items, new meetingrequests, and sentiment analysis. The use of speech and/or textrecognition provides a more favorable user experience by allowing usersto manage various aspects of electronic meetings using voice commandsand/or text commands.

i. Agenda Management

According to one embodiment, artificial intelligence is used to provideagenda management functionality during electronic meetings. Agendamanagement functionality may include a wide variety of functionalitythat may vary depending upon a particular implementation. Examplefunctionality includes, without limitation, enforcing time constraintsfor agenda items, changing designated amounts of time for agenda items,changing, deleting and adding agenda items, including providing missingor supplemental information for agenda items, and agenda navigation.

FIG. 4A is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement in which meetingintelligence apparatus 102 includes speech or text recognition logic 400that processes first meeting content data 302 to determine one or morecorresponding agenda topics. In the example depicted in FIG. 4A, firstmeeting content data 302 includes the speech or text statement “Grosssales are expected to be $10.8 million next quarter.” A participantassociated with node 104A may have caused first meeting content data 302to be generated by speaking, writing, typing, or displaying thestatement. Speech or text recognition logic 400 may process firstmeeting content data 302 by parsing to detect keywords that are mappedto a meeting agenda. In the present example, speech or text recognitionlogic 400 detects the keywords “next quarter.” These keywords are a cue304 for meeting intelligence apparatus 102 to generate intervention data310 that indicates a corresponding agenda topic. The intervention data310 may be used by the electronic meeting application to determine acorrespondence between a current point in an electronic meeting and ameeting agenda. This correspondence is used to provide agenda managementfunctionality, including tracking the current agenda topic. In theexample of FIG. 4A, second meeting content data 312 specifies, amongother information, the position of visual indicator 220, or a currentagenda item, using JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). Thus, one or moreelectronic meeting applications that process the JSON will displayvisual indicator 220 at the specified position in the meeting agendaduring an electronic meeting.

A determined correspondence between a current point in an electronicmeeting and a meeting agenda may be used to monitor the progress of anelectronic meeting and enforce time constraints with respect toindividual agenda items, groups of agenda items, and/or an entireelectronic meeting. This may include tracking the amount of time spenton agenda items and providing one or more indications to meetingparticipants. For example, in addition to the timer provided in agendawindow 218 (FIG. 2D), a visual and/or audible indication may be providedwhen an amount of time designated for an agenda item, group of agendaitems, or an entire electronic meeting, is nearing expiration or hasexpired. If the timer value exceeds the specified time limit, theelectronic meeting application may cause a message to be displayed inmessage window 224. The message may also be spoken by the electronicmeeting application. The message may indicate, for example, the thattime limit for the current agenda item has expired and the electronicmeeting will be progressing to the next agenda item. Additionally oralternatively, the electronic meeting application may move a visualindication to a different agenda topic. Speech and text recognition mayalso be used to ensure that all agenda items and action items areaddressed during an electronic meeting, which may include discussion,deferral, etc.

As previously described herein, agenda items may be designated asrequiring a decision, for example via one or more meeting rulestemplates, or via user-designation. According to one embodiment, anelectronic meeting application ensures that a decision is made for allagenda items requiring a decision during an electronic meeting. If auser attempts to navigate to another agenda item or action item before adecision has been made on a current agenda item, the electronic meetingapplication may display a message in message window 224, or speak themessage, indicating that the current agenda item or action item requiresa decision. This may include preventing navigation to other agenda itemsor action items until the current agenda item is addressed. A meetingowner may be permitted to override this functionality and move toanother agenda item or action item.

Speech and text recognition may be used to recognize agenda-relatedcommands, such commands to add time to agenda items and agendanavigation commands. For example, the command “add time”, followed by aspecified amount of time, adds a specified amount of time to the currentagenda item. The command “add time to” followed by an agenda item and aspecified amount of time, adds the specified amount of time to thespecified agenda item, which may be a different agenda item than thecurrent agenda item. Another example is the command “completed,” “done,”or “defer,” followed by “next agenda item,” to change the status of thecurrent agenda item and move to the next agenda item. For example, inresponse to “defer, jump to X,” the current agenda item is deferred,also referred to as “parked,” and the new current agenda item becomes X.Various other agenda navigation commands may be used, depending upon aparticular implementation.

Another example of agenda-related commands are commands to delete,change or add (new) agenda items. Agenda items may be identified by nameor other means, such as code, reference number, symbol, etc. Forexample, the command “delete” followed by a particular agenda itemcauses the particular agenda item to be deleted from the agenda. Asanother example, the command “change agenda item X to X′” causes theagenda item X to be changed to X′. As yet another example, the command“add agenda item Y” or “new agenda item Y” causes a new agenda item Y tobe added to the agenda. The user may specify, for example, by speaking,writing, etc., attributes of a new agenda item, such as name, date,responsible person, etc. Agenda-related commands may also includecommands to change the order of agenda items in an agenda. For example,the command “Agenda item X, move to top” causes agenda item X to bemoved to the top of the agenda. Similarly, the command “Agenda item X,move to bottom” causes agenda item X to be moved to the bottom of theagenda.

According to one embodiment, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 providesthe capability to detect that information is missing for a new agendaitem and provide a notification to an electronic meeting application.According to this embodiment, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 detectsthat not all of the information required for a new agenda item has beenspecified. This may be performed, for example, by meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 analyzing first meeting content data 302 to detect acommand to create a new agenda item, along with some attributeinformation for the new agenda item. Referring to the prior example,meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may detect, in first meeting contentdata 302, the command, “new agenda item Y,” along with attribute datafor new agenda item Y, such as a description of the new agenda item.This command may have been spoken, written or selected by a meetingparticipant, as indicated by the first meeting content data 302.

Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 recognizes, using artificialintelligence such as artificial intelligence service 110, that someinformation for the new agenda item is missing, such as a responsibleperson. This may be determined, for example, based upon a set ofrequirements that specifies information required for agenda items. Forexample, a requirement may exist that all new agenda items, or agendaitems of this type, have an assigned responsible person. Alternatively,this may be determined based upon information specified for agenda itemsfor the same electronic meeting or other electronic meetings. Forexample, Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may examine records forother electronic meetings to identify information provided with agendaitems for those electronic meetings and determine that most or all ofthose agenda items included a responsible person.

Once a determination has been made that a new agenda item is missingparticular information, Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 mayautomatically determine the missing information, for example, byexamining information for other agenda items for the current electronicmeeting, or for other electronic meetings. This may include identifyingagenda items that are similar to the new agenda item and then examiningthe information specified for those similar agenda items. The missinginformation may then be provided to the electronic meeting applicationfor processing. The electronic meeting application may notify themeeting participants that information is missing for the new agendaitem, for example, by displaying a message in message window 224. Theelectronic meeting application may automatically use the informationprovided by Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 to address the missinginformation and notify the meeting participants via message window 224.Alternatively, the electronic meeting application may query a meetingparticipant to provide the missing information. The information providedby Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may be provided meetingparticipants as suggested information for completing the missinginformation.

Consider the following example. Suppose that a new agenda item iscreated without a responsible person. Meeting intelligence apparatus 102determines that a responsible person is missing for the new agenda itemand analyzes agendas for other electronic meetings to identify agendaitems that are similar to the new agenda item. Various algorithms, suchas distance algorithms, may be used to identify other similar agendaitems, e.g., other agenda items that are within a specified distance ofthe new agenda item. The responsible person designated for the otheragenda item that is most similar to the new agenda item is identifiedand provided to the electronic meeting application. In the presentexample, “Alice C.” is the responsible person for the other agenda itemthat is most similar to the new agenda item.

The electronic meeting application may automatically designate theresponsible person determined by meeting intelligence apparatus 102 forthe new agenda item and notify the meeting participants via messagewindow 224. An example message is “New agenda item X is missing aresponsible person, Alice C. has been automatically designated.” Theelectronic meeting application may provide controls to allow a meetingparticipant to confirm or change the responsible person. This may alsobe done via voice commands. Alternatively, the information provided bymeeting intelligence apparatus 102 may be displayed as a suggestion,along with controls to accept or change the suggestion. For example, theelectronic meeting application may display a message via message window224 such as, “New agenda item X is missing a responsible person.Suggestion: Alice C.” In situations where the information provided bymeeting intelligence apparatus 102 includes multiple suggestedresponsible persons, then the multiple suggested responsible persons mayall be listed, and controls provided for a user to select one of theresponsible persons. Alternatively, a user may simply speak the name ofthe responsible person to be designated for the new agenda item.

According to one embodiment, artificial intelligence may providesupplemental information for new agenda items. For example, in the priorexample in which the new agenda item is missing a responsible person andAlice C. is provided as a suggestion, the suggestion may includeadditional information about Alice C. that might be helpful to a meetingparticipant deciding whether to accept or change the suggestion. In thisexample, this may include information about Alice C, such as “New agendaitem X is missing a responsible person. Suggestion: Alice C.(responsible person on agenda items X1 and X2).” Supplementalinformation may pertain to other aspects of a new agenda item. Forexample, additional information about the subject of a new agenda itemmay be displayed.

As demonstrated by the foregoing examples and embodiments, artificialintelligence may be used to aid in various aspects of agenda managementand provide a more useful experience. Information provided by meetingintelligence apparatus 102, such as recognized commands, missing andsupplemental agenda information, etc., may be automatically provided bymeeting intelligence apparatus 102 to an electronic meeting application.Alternatively, this information may be provided in response to requestsfrom electronic meeting applications.

Changes to agenda items and new agenda items may be recorded in meetingrecords, such as meeting minutes or transcripts, and used during thecreation of other meeting agendas, as previously described herein. Theapproach described above for new agenda items may be used for existingagenda items. For example, suppose that an existing agenda item ismissing information. A user may be queried to supply the missinginformation for the existing agenda item. Alternatively, the missinginformation may be provided or suggested by meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 as previously described herein. Meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 may transmit, to an electronic meeting application, dataindicating that required information is missing for a new agenda item.In response to receiving this data, the electronic meeting applicationnotifies meeting participants, for example, via a message in messagewindow 224, an audible indication, or both, that additional informationis required for the new agenda item.

According to one embodiment, the aforementioned approaches may be usedto create new agenda items for electronic meetings that have no agenda.For example, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may recognize a “createagenda” command and provide a notification to an electronic meetingapplication to create an agenda for the current electronic meeting.Agenda items may then be added to the agenda as previously describedherein.

ii. Points of Agreement, Action Items and New Meeting Requests

Action items are an important aspect of many electronic meetings.According to one embodiment, an electronic meeting application, inconjunction with meeting intelligence apparatus 102, is configured torecognize commands pertaining to action items for an electronic meeting.For example, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may recognize a spokenor written command “add action item X,” and in response to this command,add action item X to a meeting record for the current electronicmeeting. Explicit commands to establish action items may bepre-specified and meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may be configuredto detect the pre-specified commands in first meeting content data 302.

According to an embodiment, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 isconfigured to recognize implicit requests for action items. Implicitrequests for action items may be recognized based upon an analysis offirst meeting content data 302. The analysis may identify words thatalthough do not constitute an explicit request for an action item,indicate a desire by one or more meeting participants to create anaction item. For example, a meeting participant may state, during acurrent electronic meeting, “Let's ask the IT department to follow-up onRF link reliability.” While this phrase may not include pre-specifiedkeywords for creating an action item, based upon the use of artificialintelligence, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 determines that thereexists an intent by one or more meeting participants is to create anaction item. In response to identifying an explicit or implicit requestfor an action item, the electronic meeting application and/or meetingintelligence apparatus 102 may automatically create a new action itemfor the electronic meeting, which may include adding the action item toan electronic record for the electronic meeting. The electronic meetingapplication may display, for example, on electronic meeting screen 212,a visual confirmation for the meeting participants indicating that theaction item was added for the current electronic meeting.

For explicit and implicit requests, the electronic meeting applicationmay display detected words or phrases and provide controls for a meetingparticipant to confirm the request for an action item. This may behelpful to avoid creating action items based upon implicit requestswhere the meeting participants did not actually intend to create anaction item. Confirmation may be provided verbally or detected viaspeech or text recognition logic 400. FIG. 2F depicts a message window224 displayed on electronic meeting screen 212 that includes a proposedaction item determined by meeting intelligence apparatus 102 analyzingfirst meeting content data 302, along with controls for confirming orcanceling the proposed action item. In this example, an explicit commandwas not used to create a new action item. Instead, meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 identified an implicit request to create a new action itemfrom the statement made by a meeting participant, “Let's ask the ITdepartment to follow-up on RF link reliability.”

There are times during some electronic meetings where certain decisions,conclusions, stipulations, or points of agreement are established by themeeting participants and it is desirable to document this information,in association with the current electronic meeting. According to oneembodiment, an electronic meeting application, in conjunction withmeeting intelligence apparatus 102, is configured to recognizedecisions, conclusions, stipulations, or points of agreement based uponexplicit commands, and in response, add the decisions, conclusions,stipulations, or points of agreement to meeting notes, minutes and/ortranscripts for the current electronic meeting. For example, meetingintelligence apparatus 102 may recognize a spoken or written command“add conclusion” or “point of agreement,” and add a following conclusionstatement or point of agreement to a meeting record for the currentelectronic meeting. In addition, the electronic meeting application maydisplay, for example on electronic meeting screen 212, a visualconfirmation for the meeting participants indicating that the decision,conclusion, stipulation, or point of agreement was added for the currentelectronic meeting. Explicit commands to establish decisions,conclusions, stipulations, or points of agreement may be pre-specifiedand meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may be configured to detect thepre-specified commands in first meeting content data 302.

According to an embodiment, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 isconfigured to recognize implicit decisions, conclusions, stipulations,or points of agreement and add corresponding information to a meetingrecord for the electronic meeting. Implicit decisions, conclusions,stipulations, or points of agreement may be recognized in first meetingcontent data 302 based upon words that, based upon an artificialintelligence analysis, indicate a desire by one or more meetingparticipants to establish a decision, conclusion, stipulation, or pointof agreement, even though a pre-specified command was used by a meetingparticipant. For example, a meeting participant may state, “It appearsthat we have reached a consensus on this point.” Based upon the use ofartificial intelligence, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 determinesthat the intent of one or more meeting participants was to establish aconclusion or point of agreement, without using a pre-specified commandfor doing so. As previously described herein with respect to actionitems, message window 224 may be used to display a possible decision,conclusion, stipulation, or point of agreement, along with controls forconfirming or canceling. Message window 224 may also be used to displaydetected explicit or implicit requests to create a new meeting, alongwith controls for confirming or canceling.

i. Sentiment Analysis

As previously described herein, new meetings may be created based uponthe results of sentiment analysis that indicates that a new meeting maybe appropriate or helpful in a particular situation, for example ifsignificant disagreement and/or hostility exists between participants ina meeting. The results of sentiment analysis may also be used toinitiate other actions to address the detected sentiment, e.g., todiffuse detected hostility between meeting participants. For example, aproposal to create an action item may be generated and displayed inmessage window 224, e.g., “Create action item for current topic?” Asanother example, a proposal to create a follow-up meeting may begenerated and displayed in message window 224, e.g., “Create follow-upmeeting for current topic?” As yet another example, a proposal to deferthe current agenda item and move to the next agenda item may bedisplayed in message window 224, such as “Defer current agenda item andmove to next agenda item?” This allows a meeting participant, such asthe meeting owner to diffuse the detected hostility by stoppingdiscussion on the current agenda item and moving to another agenda item.Furthermore, the suggestion of the alternative actions by meetingintelligence apparatus 102 may depersonalize the intervention because itis done by meeting intelligence apparatus 102 in combination with theelectronic meeting application, rather than a meeting participant. Thismay provide a more favorable user experience.

FIG. 4B is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for performingsentiment analysis with respect to an ongoing discussion 402. Referringto FIG. 4B, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 includes sentimentanalysis logic 404 that performs sentiment analysis on first meetingcontent data 302 related to ongoing discussion 402. For example, meetingintelligence apparatus 102 may detect an angry tone or sentiment that isa cue 304 for meeting intelligence apparatus 102 to generateintervention data 310 indicating that another electronic meeting hasbeen automatically scheduled for continuing ongoing discussion 402. Inthe example of FIG. 4B, second meeting content data 312 includes JSONthat can be used by an electronic meeting application to make decisionsabout a current electronic meeting.

B. Information Retrieval

According to one embodiment, an electronic meeting application, inconjunction with meeting intelligence apparatus 102, providesinformation retrieval services for electronic meetings. This capabilityallows a user to formulate and submit natural language queries forprocessing, and view the results of processing the natural languagequeries during an electronic meeting. This provides a more favorableuser experience than requiring users to be able to formulate queries inmore formal formats or a computer language, such as Structured QueryLanguage (SQL).

FIG. 4C is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for retrievingrequested information using natural language queries. A user specifies anatural language query to an electronic meeting application executing,for example, on node 106A. For example, FIG. 2K depicts a naturallanguage query via query window 272 of electronic meeting screen 212that allows a user to enter a natural language query. The electronicmeeting application generates and transmits a natural language request406 to meeting intelligence apparatus 102. Natural language request 406may be included in first meeting content data 302, or may be transmittedseparately. In the example depicted in FIG. 4C, natural language request406 includes the question “Where did we leave off at the last meeting?”Note that natural language request 406 may include a question, astatement, a command, or any other type of request for information.

Speech or text recognition logic 400 parses and interprets first meetingcontent data 302 to detect natural language request 406, which is a cue304 for meeting intelligence apparatus 102 to generate intervention data310 to be sent to at least node 104A during an electronic meeting. Forexample, speech or text recognition logic 400, alone or in combinationwith sentiment analysis logic 404, may detect inflected speech and/orkeywords indicative of an information request, such as “who”, “what”,“when”, “where”, “why”, or “how”. Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 caninterpret these and other keywords as commands to perform requestedfunctions, such as data retrieval.

In the example of FIG. 4C, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 mayinterpret the question as a command to search and analyze prior meetingdata to determine an answer to the question. Determining the answer tothe question may involve analyzing meeting content data related to anongoing meeting and/or a prior meeting, thereby increasing the relevanceof the answer to the question. For example, the question “Where did weleave off at the last meeting?” may be analyzed using contextual data(e.g., metadata) from the current meeting, such as the identities ofparticipants 108A-N, the topic of the current discussion, etc. Meetingintelligence apparatus 102 may search the meeting data repository forinformation that most closely matches the contextual data from thecurrent meeting. For example, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 maysearch the meeting data repository for any prior meetings that includedsome or all of the participants 108A-N of the current meeting and rankthe results. Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may then determine thatthe “last meeting” refers to the top result and may search for the lastagenda topic in the prior meeting that corresponds to the top result.

Intervention data 310 that is generated in response to natural languagerequest 406 includes stored information 410 that meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 retrieves in response to natural language request 406.Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 includes data retrieval logic 408,which performs a search for stored information 410 that is responsive tonatural language request 406. For example, data retrieval logic 408 maysearch a meeting data repository and/or external data sources, such aswebsites on the Internet. In the example of FIG. 4C, meetingintelligence apparatus 102 generates second meeting content data 312that includes stored information 410 retrieved from a meeting datarepository. The stored information 410 includes the answer to thequestion about a different meeting.

In an embodiment, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 processes naturallanguage request 406 and researches a particular topic or otherwisesearch for information that is unrelated to a particular meeting. Forexample, natural language request 406 may be the statement “We need tofigure out how to get source code from the app.” In response, meetingintelligence apparatus 102 may retrieve information from variouswebsites that address natural language request 406. As shall bedescribed in greater detail hereafter, this can be a particularly usefulfeature for participants 108A-N who wish to collaborate, during anelectronic meeting, to create a presentation, a report, or any otherdocument. Results of processing natural language queries are displayedby the electronic meeting application, for example, via message window224.

C. Meeting Content Supplementation

According to one embodiment, an electronic meeting application, inconjunction with meeting intelligence apparatus 102, provides contentsupplementation services for electronic meetings. These services providesupplemental information for electronic meetings, including additionalinformation about agenda items, electronic meeting content, and meetingparticipants, and translation information.

According to one embodiment, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 analyzesagenda items and electronic meeting content and provides supplementalinformation that is displayed by an electronic meeting application, forexample, via message window 224. The supplemental information maypertain to one or more agenda items displayed in agenda window 218 orcontent 214 displayed in agenda window 213. The supplemental informationmay be obtained by identifying one or subjects or topics in agenda itemsor content, and then performing searches on those subjects or topics.The searches may be performed as a background task to a currentelectronic meeting and may be automatically initiated and then re-runwhen changes to agenda items or content occur. Results of the searchesmay be displayed in message window 224 and/or one or more other searchresults windows. This may include specialized search results windows,for example, a search results window for search results pertaining toagenda items and a search results widow for search results pertaining toelectronic meeting content, such as an ongoing meeting or conversation.The information in the search results windows may be continuouslyupdated to reflect changes in the agenda and the content of anelectronic meeting. For example, as an electronic meeting is conducted,first meeting content data 302 is provided to and processed by meetingintelligence apparatus 102 to identify topics or subjects to besearched, the identified topics or subjects are searched and searchresults provided to and displayed by an electronic meeting application.As the electronic meeting switches from topic to topic, the searchresults displayed by the electronic meeting application are dynamicallyupdated. This allows meeting participants to have access to supplementalinformation for an electronic meeting. According to one embodiment, dataitems in search results are selectable, via a pointing device or voicecommands, and when a data item is selected, a subsequent search isconducted for the selected data item and the results displayed. Thisallows meeting participants to seamlessly acquire additional informationabout topics or subjects discussed during an electronic meeting.

According to an embodiment, the supplemental information includesinformation about one or more meeting participants. For example, meetingintelligence apparatus 102 may analyze first meeting content data 302 toidentify one or more meeting participants, and then transmit participantidentification data one or more electronic meeting applications.

FIG. 4D is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for supplementingmeeting content with participant identification data. Referring to FIG.4D, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 includes voice or facerecognition logic 412, which performs voice or face recognition on firstmeeting content data 302 to detect a voice or a face. The voice or faceis a cue 304 for meeting intelligence apparatus 102 to generateintervention data 310 to be sent to at least node 104A during anelectronic meeting. In response to detecting the cue 304, meetingintelligence apparatus 102 determines one or more participants 108A-Nand generates participant identification data that identifies the one ormore participants 108A-N. Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 generatesand transmits second meeting content data 312 that includes theparticipant identification data. When processed at one or more nodes104A-N, second meeting content data 312 causes the participantidentification data to be presented at the one or more nodes 104A-N.

According to one embodiment, the supplemental information includestranslation information. Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may cause alanguage translation or format conversion of first meeting content data302 to be presented at one or more nodes 104A-N. In an embodiment,meeting intelligence apparatus 102 performs speech or text recognitionon first meeting content data 302 to detect a particular language, whichmay be a cue 304 for meeting intelligence apparatus 102 to generatesecond meeting content data 312 that includes a translation of firstmeeting content data 302 into a different language. For example, meetingintelligence apparatus 102 may translate English content into Japanesecontent. Second meeting content data 312 may replace or supplement firstmeeting content data 302. For example, second meeting content data 312may cause Japanese dubbing of first meeting content data 302, may causeJapanese subtitles to be added to first meeting content data 302, or forJapanese content to be provided separate from the original Englishcontent. Embodiments are described herein the context of translationfrom English to Japanese for explanation purposes only, and translationsmay be provided from any source language into any target language.According to one embodiment, different translations may be provided fordifferent nodes 104A-N participating in an electronic meeting. Forexample, suppose that an electronic meeting is initiated at a first nodein a first language, and that second and third nodes are participatingin the electronic meeting. At the second node, meeting content may betranslated from the first language to a second language, and at thethird node, meeting content may be translated from the first languageand/or the second language to a third language. The translations may beprovided in real-time, for example, via message window 224 and/or viaone or more other windows. Users at each participating node may specifya language for their node, for example via meeting controls 222, whichmay be used as a default language for that node. Users may also specifya preferred language in their user profile, or in association with theiruser credentials, to allow an electronic meeting application toautomatically default to the preferred language for a meetingparticipant. This translation approach allows multiple participants toparticipate in an electronic meeting with other participants in multipleother languages, greatly enhancing the user experience and theeffectiveness of electronic meetings.

In an embodiment, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 can detect inputfrom an input/output mechanism, and the input may be a cue 304 formeeting intelligence apparatus 102 to convert the input into a differentformat. For example, the input/output mechanism may be an electronicwhiteboard that receives as input first meeting content data 302 in theform of handwritten notes or hand-drawn illustrations. Based on opticalcharacter recognition (OCR), vector graphics, and/or any other dataconversion tool, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may convert firstmeeting content data 302 into second meeting content data 312 in theform of machine-lettering or a machine-drawn image. When processed atone or more nodes 104A-N, second meeting content data 312 may cause themachine-lettering or the machine-drawn image to be provided as output onthe electronic whiteboard.

Cue detection logic 306, data generation logic 308, speech or textrecognition logic 400, sentiment analysis logic 404, data retrievallogic 408, and voice or face recognition logic 412 may be implemented onmeeting intelligence apparatus 102 as part of artificial intelligenceservice 110, or separate from meeting intelligence service 110. Inaddition, these elements may be implemented by computer hardware,computer software, or any combination of computer hardware and computersoftware.

D. Meeting Content Metadata Generation

FIGS. 4A-D each depict second meeting content data 312 that includes avariety of meeting content metadata. Meeting intelligence apparatus 102generates the meeting content metadata based on internal and/or externalinformation. Internal information includes information readilyaccessible to meeting intelligence apparatus 102 even in the absence ofa network connection. For example, if meeting intelligence apparatus 102is a computer, the system date and time are internal information. Incontrast, external information includes information accessible tomeeting intelligence apparatus 102 via a network connection. Forexample, information retrieved from external data sources are externalinformation.

FIGS. 4A-D each depict sending meeting content metadata to one or morenodes 104A-N during an electronic meeting. However, some meeting contentmetadata may remain un-transmitted throughout the duration of theelectronic meeting. For example, some meeting content metadata mayremain stored in meeting intelligence apparatus 102 for an internal use,such as generating a report. As shall be described in greater detail inFIG. 6C, a notable example of such meeting content metadata is a labelthat identifies a key meeting point, such as an action item, a task, adeadline, etc.

V. Post-Meeting Processing

According to one embodiment, an electronic meeting process, inconjunction with meeting intelligence apparatus 102, may provide a widevariety of post-meeting processing services, based upon analyzingmeeting content. As used herein, the term “meeting content” refers toany information pertaining to one or more electronic meetings. Examplesof meeting content include, without limitation, meeting scheduling andagenda information, meeting participant information, content sharedduring an electronic meeting, and all actions and functions performedduring one or more electronic meetings.

Meeting content may be analyzed at any time relative to an electronicmeeting, i.e., before, during or after an electronic meeting, as soon asat least some meeting content is available. Certain types of processing,such as participant analysis described in more detail hereinafter, maybenefit from being able to process meeting data from one or morecompleted electronic meetings. For example, after an electronic meetingends, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may analyze stored meetingcontent data and generate reports based on analyzed meeting contentdata. Alternatively, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may analyzemeeting content data during an electronic meeting and may generate,after the electronic meeting ends, a report based on analyzed meetingcontent data. Reports may include any type and amount of data, includingany number of documents, a meeting agenda, a meeting summary, a meetingtranscript, a meeting participant analysis, a slideshow presentation,etc. As previously described herein, post meeting processing results maybe used for other electronic meetings. For example, post meetingprocessing results may be used to determine suggested meetingparticipants for other electronic meetings. This may be repeated toimprove the quality of suggested meeting participants over time.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for processingmeeting content and generating a report. Referring to FIG. 5, meetingintelligence apparatus 102 receives, from node 104A, audio/video data300 that includes first meeting content data 302. Meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 includes data extraction logic 500, metadata generationlogic 502, and report generation logic 506. Data extraction logic 500causes first meeting content data 302 to be extracted from audio/videodata 300. Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 analyzes first meetingcontent data 302 and uses metadata generation logic 502 to generatemeeting content metadata 504. Report generation logic 506 causes meetingcontent metadata 504 to be included in report 508. This processing mayoccur on a continuous basis, or in response to a request to perform theprocessing.

Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may perform various functions basedupon report 508. For example, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 maystore report 508 in a meeting data repository or provide report 508 toone or more nodes 104A-N associated with participants 108A-N of anelectronic meeting. Thus, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 maygenerate report 508 in an offline mode and/or an online mode. Electronicmeeting applications may also process and store report 508, as well asother data generated in response to an analysis of meeting content.

A. Meeting Content Analysis

In an embodiment, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 generates meetingcontent metadata 504 during an electronic meeting. For example, datageneration logic 308 may include metadata generation logic 502, andsecond meeting content data 312 may include meeting content metadata504. FIGS. 6A-C depict examples of meeting content metadata 504 that canbe generated during an electronic meeting.

FIG. 6A is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for generatingmeeting content metadata 504 that includes participant identificationdata 602. Referring to FIG. 6A, data extraction logic 500 extracts andprovides first meeting content data 302 to metadata generation logic502. In the example of FIG. 6A, metadata generation logic 502 includesvoice or face recognition logic 412, which performs voice or facerecognition on first meeting content data 302 to identify one or moreparticipants 108A-N in an electronic meeting. Metadata generation logic502 generates meeting content metadata 504 that includes participantidentification data 602 for the one or more participants 108A-N.Metadata generation logic 502 provides meeting content metadata 504 toreport generation logic 506.

FIG. 6B is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for generatingmeeting content metadata 504 that includes a sentiment detected in firstmeeting content data 302. Referring to FIG. 6B, data extraction logic500 extracts first meeting content data 302 that includes the statement“Not necessarily.” Metadata generation logic 502 includes sentimentanalysis logic 404, which performs sentiment analysis on first meetingcontent data 302 to determine a sentiment 604 of a participant in anelectronic meeting. Sentiment analysis may be performed using a widevariety of sentiment processing algorithms that may vary depending upona particular implementation. Metadata generation logic 502 generatesmeeting content metadata 504 that includes sentiment 604. In the exampleof FIG. 6B, meeting content metadata 504 also includes participantidentification data 602 and information related to providing atranslation of first meeting content data 302. Thus, metadata generationlogic 502 may include a combination of sentiment analysis logic 404,voice or face recognition logic 412, and speech or text recognitionlogic 400.

FIG. 6C is a block diagram that depicts an arrangement for generatingmeeting content metadata 504 that includes a label to identify a key,i.e., important, meeting point. Referring to FIG. 6C, first meetingcontent data 302 includes the statement “Action item create schedule byTuesday”. Metadata generation logic 502 includes speech or textrecognition logic 400, which performs speech or text recognition onfirst meeting content data 302 to recognize one or more keywords 606 infirst meeting content data 302. One or more keywords 606 may indicate atask 608 to be completed after an electronic meeting. For example, theone or more keywords 606 may include a voice or text command to performa particular task. In the example of FIG. 6C, the one or more keywords606 are the label “Action item” followed by the command “create scheduleby Tuesday.” Metadata generation logic 502 generates meeting contentmetadata 504 that includes the one or more keywords 606 and/or task 608.

Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may generate meeting content metadata504 based on internal and/or external information, such as geolocationinformation or a meeting room availability schedule. In each of FIGS.6A-C, report generation logic 506 includes meeting content metadata 504in report 508. FIGS. 7A-B depict examples of report 508. Referring toFIGS. 7A-B, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 provides report 508 via aweb-based participant interface. Meeting intelligence apparatus 102 maysend report 508 to one or more nodes 104A-N at any of a number of times,such as upon demand, upon detecting a network connection, automaticallyafter each electronic meeting, etc.

B. Meeting Results

Post-meeting processing may be performed in accordance with requirementsand constraints specified for an electronic meeting, e.g., via a meetingrules template. For example, a meeting rules template may specifyparticular types of documentation to be created for an electronicmeeting, such as meeting minutes, transcriptions, summaries,translations, etc. The types and form of documentation may be requiredto satisfy various organizational, governmental, judicial, andcompliance requirements. The meeting rules template may also specify howthe documentation is to be handled, e.g., stored in a particularlocation, distributed to meeting participants and others, etc. Forexample, a meeting rules template may specify that meeting results areto be stored on a particular file server and emailed to all of themeeting participants.

FIG. 7A depicts an example meeting reports screen 700 that providesaccess to meeting results data for a plurality of electronic meetings.Meeting reports screen 700 may be accessed, for example, by a userselecting the “Meeting Reports” control from controls 202 on electronicmeeting screen 200 (FIG. 2A). Meeting reports screen allows a user toselect a particular electronic meeting and view meeting results for theselected electronic meeting.

FIG. 7B depicts an example meeting results screen 710 for the CometDesign Review Meeting displayed, for example, in response to a userusing a pointing device, such as a mouse, to select the “Comet DesignReview Meeting” from meeting reports screen 700. Meeting results screen710 displays meeting results for a selected electronic meeting. In theexample depicted in FIG. 7A, the meeting results information ispresented in the form of a meeting summary “dashboard,” that includesmany of the meeting content metadata 504 depicted in FIGS. 6A-C, butembodiments are not limited to this example and are applicable to anytype of meeting results.

Meeting results, including a meeting summary, may include explicit dataand/or implicit data. Explicit data includes information such as detailsabout the electronic meeting (name, subject, date, location, etc.),meeting participants, meeting content data, such as documents, images,and/or any other data shared during an electronic meeting. In theexample of FIG. 7B, explicit data includes the meeting agenda, a list ofaction items, and a list of documents. In this example, the meetingagenda is accessed via a link, but one or more portions of an electronicmeeting agenda, including an entire agenda, may be included in meetingresults screen 710.

Implicit data includes meeting content metadata 504, such asidentifiers, translations, and/or any other data generated by meetingintelligence apparatus 102 after analyzing an electronic meeting. In theexample depicted in FIG. 7B, meeting results screen 710 includes a linkto a transcript of the electronic meeting, and a user may select alanguage for the transcript, irrespective of the language in which theelectronic meeting was conducted. Multiple transcripts in differentlanguages may be created. For example, for an electronic meetingconducted in English, both English and Japanese transcripts may begenerated. Links are also provided to individual reports related to eachparticipant which, as described in more detail hereinafter, may includevarious participant metrics.

In the example of FIG. 7B, the meeting results screen 710 also includeslinks to other reports, such as the meeting agenda, action items, andvarious documents generated during the electronic meeting. In thisexample, the electronic documents that were generated during theelectronic meeting include “Whiteboard Notes” and “Draft Schedule,” andthese electronic documents were generated based on one or moreinput/output mechanisms. For example, the one or more input/outputmechanisms may include an electronic whiteboard. Meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 may convert handwritten notes or hand-drawn illustrationsreceived as input on the electronic whiteboard into a machine-letteredor a machine-drawn image based on optical character recognition (OCR),vector graphics, and/or any other data conversion tool. For example,meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may perform OCR on handwritten notesto generate metadata that indicates which letters were detected. Themetadata may then be used to generate the detected letters in aparticular font or any other machine-lettering format.

According to an embodiment, post-meeting processing includes performingvarious statistical analyses, for example, to determine meetingefficiency. In the example of FIG. 7B, meeting results screen 710includes a pie chart 712 that depicts an amount of time spent on each oftwo agenda items during an electronic meeting. In the present example,pie chart 712, along with the accompanying key, indicates that 25% ofthe meeting time was spent discussing the first agenda item, “Createschedule by Tuesday” and 75% of the meeting time was spent discussingthe second agenda item, “Get feedback from Marketing.” Similarapproaches may be used for other aspects of an electronic meeting, suchas action items, and information may be arranged by subject or topic.Embodiments are not limited to this example using pie charts, and anymethod of presenting statistical information on a computer userinterface may be used.

Meeting results screen 710 also includes a statistic in the form of ameeting efficiency metric 714. In the example depicted in FIG. 7B,meeting efficiency is represented by the integer number “86” that isdepicted on a scale from low to high, and relative to the meetingefficiency for all electronic meetings. A low efficiency may correspondto a meeting efficiency of 0, while high efficiency may correspond to ameeting efficiency of 100. Meeting efficiency may be calculated basedupon a wide variety of criteria that may vary depending upon aparticular implementation. Example criteria include, without limitation,the actual total amount of actual time required for an electronicmeeting relative to a scheduled amount of time for the electronicmeeting, an amount of time added to agenda items during the electronicmeeting, an average amount of time per agenda item, a percentage ofagenda items that were completed during the electronic meeting, apercentage of action items that were completed during the electronicmeeting, etc. Meeting efficiency may be determined based upon anycombination of these example criteria, or other criteria, and criteriamay be weighted, depending upon a particular implementation. Meetingefficiency is just one example of statistical-based meeting results thatmay be presented to users, and other statistics may be used. A “Back”control is provided which, when selected by a user, returns control tomeeting reports screen 700 of FIG. 7A.

In the prior examples, meeting results were determined and displayed fora particular electronic meeting selected by a user. According to oneembodiment, aggregate meeting results are determined across multipleelectronic meetings. This allows a user to view overall meetingstatistics across multiple meetings with the organization. Examples ofmeeting statistics include, without limitation, meeting efficiency,average participant participation rate, action item completion rate,sentiment scores, average meeting time, average meeting time overrun,etc. Controls may allow a user to specify the electronic meetings forwhich statistics are to be determined and displayed. For example,controls may allow a user to select all electronic meetings with anorganization, or select electronic meetings by division, group,department (sales & marketing, accounting, engineering, testing, etc.),project, team, user, meeting topic, meeting objective, etc. Thestatistical results for the selected entity may be displayed in anelectronic meeting “dashboard” that allows a user to quickly and easilyview the performance of multiple electronic meetings. The statisticalresults displayed on the electronic meeting “dashboard” may bedynamically updated as the user selects a different division, group,department (sales & marketing, accounting, engineering, testing, etc.),project, team, user, etc. For example, an executive within anorganization may quickly and easily view the efficiency of electronicmeetings conducted across each entity within the organization, which insome situations allows improvements to be made to how electronicmeetings are conducted within the organization.

C. Participant Analysis

According to one embodiment, post-meeting processing includesparticipant analysis, which may include determining one or morestatistics that are indicative of one or more attributes of theparticipation by meeting participants, such as the quality and/orquantity of participation. FIG. 7C depicts an example participantanalysis report 720 that may be accessed by selecting a particularmeeting participant from meeting results screen 710 in FIG. 7B, i.e.,“John C.,” “Sue K.,” or “Mike B.” In the present example, it is presumedthat a user selected the meeting participant “Sue K.” and participantanalysis report 720 depicts a meeting participant profile for meetingparticipant “Sue K.”

Controls, such as “+” and “−” allow a user to view the meetingparticipant's profile for a particular electronic meeting. In theexample depicted in FIG. 7C, a user has selected the “+” controladjacent the “Comet Design Review Meeting” to view Sue K's meetingparticipant profile for this electronic meeting. As depicted in FIG. 7C,participant analysis report 720 depicts various participant metricsincluding a total participation time during the electronic meeting, aparticipation time for each agenda item discussed during the electronicmeeting, a participation index, an action item completion rate, a role,and sentiment analysis results. The sentiment analysis results may varydepending upon the type of sentiment analysis used. For example,sentiment analysis results may indicate a polarity sentiment result,i.e., positive, negative or neutral. As another example, sentimentanalysis results may include a sentiment score for a plurality ofsentiments. In the example depicted in FIG. 7C, a sentiment score, on ascale of 0-100, is provided for each of six sentiments, where a score of0 represents little or no detected presence of the correspondingsentiment, and a score of 100 represents a high presence of thecorresponding sentiment. Sentiment analysis results may include otherinformation, such as times during an electronic meeting where particularsentiments were detected. Multiple times may be indicated for particularsentiments that were detected at different times during an electronicmeeting.

The participation index may be any measure, weighted or otherwise, ofany aspect of the selected participant's contribution to the meeting.For example, “63/100” may indicate a proportion of the total meetingtime during which the selected participant spoke. The action itemcompletion rate indicates the past success of a meeting participant incompleting action items assigned to the meeting participant. The actionitem completion rate may be calculated in a wide variety of ways thatmay vary depending upon a particular implementation. For example, theaction item completion rate depicted in FIG. 7C indicates the number ofactions items that are completed by a particular meeting participantrelative to the total number of action items assigned to the particularparticipant. In the present example, meeting participant “Sue K.”completed one action item out of a total of two action items. The actionitems may or may not have been assigned specifically to meetingparticipant “Sue K.”

The role associated with the selected participant may indicate any of anumber of categories that describe the selected participant relative tothe current meeting and/or within a particular entity (e.g., avice-president of a corporation). For example, “Active Presenter” mayindicate that the selected participant did not merely respond to otherparticipants, but also provided many of the topics for discussion. Otherstatistics may be determined for participants and vary depending upon aparticular implementation.

Statistics for meeting participants may be determined based upon anynumber of electronic meetings. For example, statistics for meetingparticipants may be calculated based upon a single electronic meeting,or may be based upon aggregated data for multiple electronic meetings.Some statistics, such as the action item completion rate, may be moreuseful when determined over a large sample of electronic meetings,because the number of action items completed and assigned to anyindividual meeting participant in a single electronic meeting may besmall.

According to one embodiment, participant analysis report 720 includesaggregate statistics 722 for meeting participants over multipleelectronic meetings. In this example, aggregate statistics 712 formeeting participant “Sue K.” are based upon 12 electronic meetings andinclude a participation index, an action item completion rate, andsentiment scores. The sentiment scores are determined for each of aplurality of sentiments over 12 electronic meetings and in this exampleindicate that meeting participant “Sue K.” was often cheerful, rarelyconfused, often defensive and argumentative, sometimes pensive and notoften confident.

According to one embodiment, aggregate statistics may be displayed formultiple meeting participants and sorted. For example, in FIG. 7C,participant analysis report 720 includes aggregate statistics for allparticipants 724, ranked by participation rate and by action itemcompletion rate. This information may be useful in a wide variety ofcontexts. For example, aggregate statistics may be useful to meetingorganizers when planning meetings, to meeting owners during meetingswhen, for example, assigning action items, and for performanceevaluation purposes. Aggregate statistics may also be used by meetingintelligence apparatus 102 to determine suggested meeting participants,as previously described herein. Embodiments are not limited to theexample aggregate statistics depicted in FIG. 7B and any aggregatestatistics may be used. According to one embodiment, aggregatestatistics may be determined and displayed for logical entities, such asprojects, departments, groups, divisions, etc., within an organization.This allows users to view meeting participants performance on aper-logical entity basis. For example, a user may view meetingperformance statistics for meeting participants of a particular project,and compare those statistics to meeting performance statistics formeeting participants of other projects within an organization. Thisgreatly increases the usefulness of meeting performance statistics tomanagement or other interested personnel. A “Back” control is providedwhich, when selected by a user, returns control to meeting resultsscreen 710 of FIG. 7B.

According to one embodiment, translation services may be applied tomeeting results and participant analysis. For example, meeting resultsscreen 710 may include a language selection control that when selected,displays the contents of meeting results screen 710 in the selectedlanguage. The same approach may be applied to the electronic meeting“dashboard” previously described herein. Similarly, participant analysisreport 720 may include a language selection control that when selected,displays the contents of participant analysis report 720 in the selectedlanguage.

D. Action Item Management

According to one embodiment, post-meeting processing includes actionitem management, which may include displaying action items for one ormore electronic meetings and information for each action item, such as adescription, responsible person, due date, current status, etc. Actionitems may be viewed on a per meeting basis, or across multiple meetings.For example, action items for an entire organization, department, team,project, user, due date, status, etc., may be viewed.

VI. Process Overview

FIGS. 8 and 9 are flow diagrams that depict various processes that canbe performed by meeting intelligence apparatus 102. In an embodiment,FIG. 8 depicts a process that is performed with a network connectionduring an electronic meeting. In an embodiment, FIG. 9 depicts a processthat can be performed, at least partially, with or without a networkconnection.

A. Generating Intervention Data

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram 800 that depicts an approach for generatingintervention data 310. At block 802, a meeting intelligence apparatus102 receives meeting content data for an electronic meeting thatincludes a plurality of participants 108A-N. The meeting content datamay include, for example, audio/video data 300 that includes firstmeeting content data 302 for the electronic meeting. For example,meeting intelligence service 102 may receive a videoconference streamfrom a Ricoh UCS P3500 associated with a meeting participant Alice, whois making an offer to a meeting participant Bob during the electronicmeeting. The meeting content data may include other data besides theactual audio/video data for the electronic meeting. For example, themeeting content data may include supporting documentation for theelectronic meeting, as well as any type of information pertaining toother electronic meetings, as well as any other type of information.

At block 804, the meeting intelligence apparatus 102 determines that themeeting content data, e.g., audio/video data 300, includes a cue 304 forthe meeting intelligence apparatus 102 to intervene in the electronicmeeting. The meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may make thisdetermination based on performing any of a number of analyses on themeeting content data, such as speech or text recognition, voice or facerecognition, sentiment analysis, etc. For example, meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 may extract and analyze first meeting content data 302 todetect poor eye contact by Alice. The poor eye contact may be a cue 304for meeting intelligence apparatus 102 to respond by sending arecommendation to Bob.

At block 806, the meeting intelligence apparatus 102 generatesintervention data 310 in response to detecting the cue 304. Theintervention data 310 includes second meeting content data 312 that isdifferent from the first meeting content data 302. For example, meetingintelligence apparatus 102 may generate a recommendation that advisesBob to make a counteroffer.

At block 808, the meeting intelligence apparatus 102 sends theintervention data 310 to one or more nodes 104A-N during the electronicmeeting. The one or more nodes 104A-N are associated with at least oneparticipant of the plurality of participants 108A-N. For example,meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may send the recommendation to Boband withhold the recommendation from Alice.

B. Generating Reports

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram 900 that depicts an approach for generating areport 508. At block 902, a meeting intelligence apparatus 102 receivesmeeting content data for an electronic meeting that includes a pluralityof participants 108A-N. For example, meeting intelligence apparatus 102may receive an audioconference data packet from Charlie's smartphone,which is executing the Ricoh UCS app.

At block 904, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 analyzes the meetingcontent data. For example, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 mayanalyze audio/video data 300 for an electronic meeting and extractparticular meeting content data from the audio/video data 300. This mayinclude, for example, stripping out header data and analyzing thepayload of audioconference data packets. Analyzing the payload mayinvolve performing speech or text recognition, sentiment analysis, voiceor face recognition, etc.

At block 904, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 generates meetingcontent metadata 504 based on analyzing the meeting content data. Forexample, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 may perform voicerecognition on the meeting content data to identify Charlie as theperson presenting at the electronic meeting. meeting intelligenceapparatus 102 may generate JSON that includes “speaker: Charlie” amongthe name-value pairs.

At block 906, the meeting intelligence apparatus 102 includes at leastpart of the meeting content metadata 504 in a report 508 of theelectronic meeting. For example, meeting intelligence apparatus 102 maygenerate a “Meeting Summary” report that includes “Charlie” among theparticipants 108A-N of the electronic meeting.

VII. Implementation Examples

According to one embodiment, the techniques described herein areimplemented by one or more special-purpose computing devices. Thespecial-purpose computing devices may be hard-wired to perform thetechniques, or may include digital electronic devices such as one ormore application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or fieldprogrammable gate arrays (FPGAs) that are persistently programmed toperform the techniques, or may include one or more general purposehardware processors programmed to perform the techniques pursuant toprogram instructions in firmware, memory, other storage, or acombination. Such special-purpose computing devices may also combinecustom hard-wired logic, ASICs, or FPGAs with custom programming toaccomplish the techniques. The special-purpose computing devices may bedesktop computer systems, portable computer systems, handheld devices,networking devices or any other device that incorporates hard-wiredand/or program logic to implement the techniques.

For example, FIG. 10 is a block diagram that depicts a computer system1000 upon which an embodiment may be implemented. Computer system 1000includes a bus 1002 or other communication mechanism for communicatinginformation, and a hardware processor 1004 coupled with bus 1002 forprocessing information. Hardware processor 1004 may be, for example, ageneral purpose microprocessor.

Computer system 1000 also includes a main memory 1006, such as a randomaccess memory (RAM) or other dynamic storage device, coupled to bus 1002for storing information and instructions to be executed by processor1004. Main memory 1006 also may be used for storing temporary variablesor other intermediate information during execution of instructions to beexecuted by processor 1004. Such instructions, when stored innon-transitory storage media accessible to processor 1004, rendercomputer system 1000 into a special-purpose machine that is customizedto perform the operations specified in the instructions.

Computer system 1000 further includes a read only memory (ROM) 1008 orother static storage device coupled to bus 1002 for storing staticinformation and instructions for processor 1004. A storage device 1010,such as a magnetic disk or optical disk, is provided and coupled to bus1002 for storing information and instructions.

Computer system 1000 may be coupled via bus 1002 to a display 1012, suchas a cathode ray tube (CRT), for displaying information to a computeruser. An input device 1014, including alphanumeric and other keys, iscoupled to bus 1002 for communicating information and command selectionsto processor 1004. Another type of user input device is cursor control1016, such as a mouse, a trackball, or cursor direction keys forcommunicating direction information and command selections to processor1004 and for controlling cursor movement on display 1012. This inputdevice typically has two degrees of freedom in two axes, a first axis(e.g., x) and a second axis (e.g., y), that allows the device to specifypositions in a plane.

Computer system 1000 may implement the techniques described herein usingcustomized hard-wired logic, one or more ASICs or FPGAs, firmware and/orprogram logic which in combination with the computer system causes orprograms computer system 1000 to be a special-purpose machine. Accordingto one embodiment, the techniques herein are performed by computersystem 1000 in response to processor 1004 executing one or moresequences of one or more instructions contained in main memory 1006.Such instructions may be read into main memory 1006 from another storagemedium, such as storage device 1010. Execution of the sequences ofinstructions contained in main memory 1006 causes processor 1004 toperform the process steps described herein. In alternative embodiments,hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination withsoftware instructions.

The term “storage media” as used herein refers to any non-transitorymedia that store data and/or instructions that cause a machine tooperation in a specific fashion. Such storage media may comprisenon-volatile media and/or volatile media. Non-volatile media includes,for example, optical or magnetic disks, such as storage device 1010.Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as main memory 1006. Commonforms of storage media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexibledisk, hard disk, solid state drive, magnetic tape, or any other magneticdata storage medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical data storage medium,any physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, aFLASH-EPROM, NVRAM, any other memory chip or cartridge.

Storage media is distinct from but may be used in conjunction withtransmission media. Transmission media participates in transferringinformation between storage media. For example, transmission mediaincludes coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including thewires that comprise bus 1002. Transmission media can also take the formof acoustic or light waves, such as those generated during radio-waveand infra-red data communications.

Various forms of media may be involved in carrying one or more sequencesof one or more instructions to processor 1004 for execution. Forexample, the instructions may initially be carried on a magnetic disk orsolid state drive of a remote computer. The remote computer can load theinstructions into its dynamic memory and send the instructions over atelephone line using a modem. A modem local to computer system 1000 canreceive the data on the telephone line and use an infra-red transmitterto convert the data to an infra-red signal. An infra-red detector canreceive the data carried in the infra-red signal and appropriatecircuitry can place the data on bus 1002. Bus 1002 carries the data tomain memory 1006, from which processor 1004 retrieves and executes theinstructions. The instructions received by main memory 1006 mayoptionally be stored on storage device 1010 either before or afterexecution by processor 1004.

Computer system 1000 also includes a communication interface 1018coupled to bus 1002. Communication interface 1018 provides a two-waydata communication coupling to a network link 1020 that is connected toa local network 1022. For example, communication interface 1018 may bean integrated services digital network (ISDN) card, cable modem,satellite modem, or a modem to provide a data communication connectionto a corresponding type of telephone line. As another example,communication interface 1018 may be a local area network (LAN) card toprovide a data communication connection to a compatible LAN. Wirelesslinks may also be implemented. In any such implementation, communicationinterface 1018 sends and receives electrical, electromagnetic or opticalsignals that carry digital data streams representing various types ofinformation.

Network link 1020 typically provides data communication through one ormore networks to other data devices. For example, network link 1020 mayprovide a connection through local network 1022 to a host computer 1024or to data equipment operated by an Internet Service Provider (ISP)1026. ISP 1026 in turn provides data communication services through theworld wide packet data communication network now commonly referred to asthe “Internet” 1028. Local network 1022 and Internet 1028 both useelectrical, electromagnetic or optical signals that carry digital datastreams. The signals through the various networks and the signals onnetwork link 1020 and through communication interface 1018, which carrythe digital data to and from computer system 1000, are example forms oftransmission media.

Computer system 1000 can send messages and receive data, includingprogram code, through the network(s), network link 1020 andcommunication interface 1018. In the Internet example, a server 1030might transmit a requested code for an application program throughInternet 1028, ISP 1026, local network 1022 and communication interface1018.

The received code may be executed by processor 1004 as it is received,and/or stored in storage device 1010, or other non-volatile storage forlater execution.

In the foregoing specification, embodiments have been described withreference to numerous specific details that may vary from implementationto implementation. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, tobe regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. The soleand exclusive indicator of the scope of the disclosure, and what isintended by the applicants to be the scope of the disclosure, is theliteral and equivalent scope of the set of claims that issue from thisapplication, in the specific form in which such claims issue, includingany subsequent correction.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus comprising: one or more processors;and one or more memories storing instructions which, when processed bythe one or more processors, cause: an electronic meeting processexecuting on the apparatus to generate a graphical user interface thatallows a user to designate a particular meeting rules template for anelectronic meeting, wherein the particular meeting rules templatespecifies a plurality of rules to be applied to the electronic meeting;and the electronic meeting process executing on the apparatus to enforcethe plurality of rules specified by the particular meeting rulestemplate with respect to the electronic meeting.
 2. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein: the particular meeting rules template specifies arequired agenda item, and in response to the user designating theparticular meeting rules template for the electronic meeting,designating the required agenda item specified by the particular meetingrules template for the electronic meeting.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein: the particular meeting rules template specifies a requiredmeeting participant, and in response to the user designating theparticular meeting rules template for the electronic meeting,designating the required meeting participant specified by the particularmeeting rules template for the electronic meeting.
 4. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein: the particular meeting rules template specifiesrequired data for an electronic meeting, and in response to the userdesignating the particular meeting rules template for the electronicmeeting, designating the required data for the electronic meeting. 5.The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the particular meeting rules templatespecifies one or more documentation requirements, and the electronicmeeting process is configured to ensure that the one or moredocumentation requirements are satisfied for the electronic meeting. 6.The apparatus of claim 3, wherein: the one or more documentationrequirements include meeting minutes, and the electronic meeting processis configured to cause meeting minutes to be generated for theelectronic meeting.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the pluralityof rules specifies a plurality of organizational, regulatory or judicialrequirements or constraints, and the electronic meeting processexecuting on the apparatus is configured to enforce the plurality oforganizational, regulatory or judicial requirements or constraints. 8.The apparatus of claim 1, wherein: the particular meeting rules templatespecifies one or more procedural requirements for an electronic meeting,and in response to the user designating the particular meeting rulestemplate for the electronic meeting, the electronic meeting processenforcing the one or more procedural requirements for the electronicmeeting.
 9. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storinginstructions which, when processed by one or more processors, cause: anelectronic meeting process executing on the apparatus to generate agraphical user interface that allows a user to designate a particularmeeting rules template for an electronic meeting, wherein the particularmeeting rules template specifies a plurality of rules to be applied tothe electronic meeting; and the electronic meeting process executing onthe apparatus to enforce the plurality of rules specified by theparticular meeting rules template with respect to the electronicmeeting.
 10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media ofclaim 9, wherein: the particular meeting rules template specifies arequired agenda item, and in response to the user designating theparticular meeting rules template for the electronic meeting,designating the required agenda item specified by the particular meetingrules template for the electronic meeting.
 11. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein: theparticular meeting rules template specifies a required meetingparticipant, and in response to the user designating the particularmeeting rules template for the electronic meeting, designating therequired meeting participant specified by the particular meeting rulestemplate for the electronic meeting.
 12. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media of claim 9, wherein: the particular meetingrules template specifies required data for an electronic meeting, and inresponse to the user designating the particular meeting rules templatefor the electronic meeting, designating the required data for theelectronic meeting.
 13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia of claim 9, wherein: the particular meeting rules templatespecifies one or more documentation requirements, and the electronicmeeting process is configured to ensure that the one or moredocumentation requirements are satisfied for the electronic meeting. 14.The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11,wherein: the one or more documentation requirements include meetingminutes, and the electronic meeting process is configured to causemeeting minutes to be generated for the electronic meeting.
 15. The oneor more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein: theplurality of rules specifies a plurality of organizational, regulatoryor judicial requirements or constraints, and the electronic meetingprocess executing on the apparatus is configured to enforce theplurality of organizational, regulatory or judicial requirements orconstraints.
 16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable mediaof claim 9, wherein: the particular meeting rules template specifies oneor more procedural requirements for an electronic meeting, and inresponse to the user designating the particular meeting rules templatefor the electronic meeting, the electronic meeting process enforcing theone or more procedural requirements for the electronic meeting.
 17. Acomputer-implemented method comprising: an electronic meeting processexecuting on the apparatus generating a graphical user interface thatallows a user to designate a particular meeting rules template for anelectronic meeting, wherein the particular meeting rules templatespecifies a plurality of rules to be applied to the electronic meeting;and the electronic meeting process executing on the apparatus enforcingthe plurality of rules specified by the particular meeting rulestemplate with respect to the electronic meeting.
 18. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein: the particular meetingrules template specifies a required agenda item, and in response to theuser designating the particular meeting rules template for theelectronic meeting, the meeting rules process designating the requiredagenda item specified by the particular meeting rules template for theelectronic meeting.
 19. The computer-implemented method of claim 17,wherein: the particular meeting rules template specifies a requiredmeeting participant, and in response to the user designating theparticular meeting rules template for the electronic meeting, themeeting rules process designating the required meeting participantspecified by the particular meeting rules template for the electronicmeeting.
 20. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein: theparticular meeting rules template specifies required data for anelectronic meeting, and in response to the user designating theparticular meeting rules template for the electronic meeting, themeeting rules process designating the required data for the electronicmeeting.